A consortium backed by BlackRock and IFM Investors has entered exclusive talks over a potential acquisition of STACK Infrastructure’s Asia-Pacific data center portfolio, in a transaction that could value the assets at as much as $25 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The investor group includes the BlackRock-backed Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), alongside IFM Investors. The consortium is preparing to conduct due diligence on the assets. The portfolio is being discussed at a valuation of approximately $20 billion to $25 billion.
A Potential Multibillion-Dollar Data Center Deal
The negotiations center on a portfolio spanning several of Asia-Pacific’s major data center markets. STACK’s official Asia-Pacific portfolio currently lists operations in Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, Osaka and Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Its website shows sites representing hundreds of megawatts of capacity across those markets, including facilities that are operational or being developed to serve large-scale computing requirements.
Australia forms a significant part of that footprint. STACK lists two Melbourne sites totaling 432 megawatts and a Sydney site with 360 megawatts of capacity on its regional page. In Melbourne, the company’s MEL01 campus comprises four purpose-built data centers with 180 megawatts of capacity.. The company opened its first Australian data center in Melbourne in 2023 as part of a broader expansion across the region.
STACK sits within Blue Owl Capital’s digital infrastructure business. Blue Owl describes STACK as one of the captive operating companies controlled by its digital infrastructure platform. The asset manager has continued raising substantial amounts of capital for the sector, including a $7 billion final close for Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure Fund III in May 2025. The fund focuses on data centers and related connectivity assets serving large technology customers.
AI Investment Pushes Infrastructure Capital Higher
The interest from AIP adds another layer to the proposed transaction. The partnership was established in 2024 to mobilize capital for infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence, particularly data centers and the energy systems required to operate them. Its founders include BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, MGX, Microsoft and Nvidia, while other participants have subsequently joined the initiative.
AIP is targeting $30 billion in equity commitments, with the potential to support as much as $100 billion of investment. That scale has already translated into major transactions. In July 2026, AIP, MGX and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners completed the acquisition of Aligned Data Centers at an enterprise value of approximately $40 billion.
That acquisition gave the consortium control of a data center business with 51 campuses and more than 6.4 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity. The buyers also committed an additional $5 billion in growth capital to expand Aligned’s AI-ready infrastructure. The deal was AIP’s first investment, providing a concrete example of the partnership’s ability to deploy capital at a scale comparable with the valuation now being discussed for STACK’s Asia-Pacific portfolio.
The amount of money moving toward data centers reflects a broader change in the infrastructure requirements of the technology industry. AI training and inference, cloud computing and other data-intensive services require large amounts of computing capacity, but expansion also depends on access to power, suitable land, cooling infrastructure and network connectivity. Blue Owl has described data centers as mission-critical infrastructure supporting both cloud services and increasingly power-intensive AI applications.
STACK Talks Remain at an Early Stage
Despite the scale of the potential transaction, no agreement to acquire STACK’s assets has been announced by BlackRock, AIP or IFM. The consortium is preparing to conduct due diligence, a process that allows prospective buyers to examine financial, operational, contractual and other information before deciding whether to proceed with a binding transaction.
Blue Owl would be on the other side of any eventual agreement. The firm has expanded its exposure to digital infrastructure in recent years, including through its acquisition of IPI Partners. Blue Owl said it saw a large financing opportunity in data centers as cloud computing and AI increased demand for digital infrastructure.
STACK, meanwhile, continues to develop capacity across Asia-Pacific. Its current regional portfolio identifies one site in Johor Bahru with 216 megawatts, two Melbourne sites totaling 432 megawatts, an Osaka site with 78 megawatts, a Sydney site with 360 megawatts and a Tokyo site with 36 megawatts.
