New York: Blackstone raised $1.75 billion through the initial public offering of Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, underscoring strong investor appetite for artificial intelligence infrastructure assets. The Blackstone-backed real estate investment trust (REIT), focused on acquiring data centers benefiting from the AI boom, sold 87.5 million shares at $20 apiece, according to a statement on Wednesday.
The vehicle plans to acquire already-built and leased data centers valued between $250 million and $1.5 billion that are rented to investment-grade hyperscalers, company filings showed.
Also read: India’s next data centre race will be won on speed, scale and sustainability
The IPO reflects two major priorities for the $1.3 trillion alternative asset manager: expanding its presence in AI infrastructure and broadening access to individual investors beyond traditional institutional clients such as pension funds and endowments.
"With an estimated $1 trillion total addressable stabilized data center market expected over the next five years, we believe the industry represents a substantial investment opportunity," the company said in earlier filings.
The listing is the largest-ever IPO of a blind-pool REIT, according to Bloomberg data, as the company has not yet acquired any data center assets.
Investors in the offering will receive bonus shares equal to 1% of their purchase, rounded down to the nearest whole share, filings showed.
An affiliate of Blackstone had also indicated interest in purchasing up to $200 million worth of shares in the REIT.
Also read: There's more to Uber’s India data centre bet than meets the eye
Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust will be externally managed by a Blackstone affiliate in exchange for management and incentive fees. It will also receive priority access for 24 months to yield-oriented, stabilized and long-duration turnkey data-center acquisition opportunities sourced by Blackstone.
The IPO was led by a group of banks including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Canada and Wells Fargo. The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the ticker symbol BXDC.
