PE giants partner with Nvidia for $709bn AI platform

Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR have signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nvidia to mobilise half a trillion US dollars ($709bn) of third-party capital to further accelerate the buildout of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

The new financing platform will turn Nvidia compute and full-stack AI infrastructure into an investment asset class to enable the AI infrastructure buildout across Nvidia's ecosystem, including leading frontier AI labs, enterprises and AI clouds, the company said.

Under these strategic partnerships, Nvidia will work with the who's who of private equity investors to create dedicated pools of capital at significant scale with attractive rates for Nvidia customers.

It comes as demand for AI infrastructure continues to rise across countries, governments, enterprises and startups looking to drive innovation, economic growth and societal benefits.

"Nvidia has reached an important milestone. We began by building chips; today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories," Nvidia chief executive and founder Jensen Huang said.

"In AI, compute is revenue. Nvidia compute is uniquely suited for this role. It is broadly adopted, flexible across models and workloads, fungible and transferable across customers and operators, and continuously improved through CUDA software - extending its useful life and improving its economics over time. It is supported by a deep global ecosystem of developers, customers and offtakers.

"That is why we are bringing the world's leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure. These financing platforms will help customers access scarce compute at scale and build the AI factories that will power every industry and country in the age of AI."

Apollo president Jum Zelter added: "Modern compute has emerged as a scarce, mission-critical asset class with compelling investment characteristics that is positioned to drive significant long-term economic growth and productivity gains."

"The combination of Nvidia's proprietary technology ecosystem and Apollo's flexible, long-term capital base provides a strong foundation to support the next stage of the AI buildout as part of the broader Global Industrial Renaissance."

Meanwhile, BlackRock chair and chief executive Larry Fink said the investment opportunity in AI continues grow.

"The AI buildout will require unprecedented investment and a skilled workforce to turn that investment into the infrastructure that will help power future growth," Fink said.

"This partnership deepens our relationship with Nvidia, including through the AI infrastructure partnership, and brings together Nvidia's leadership in accelerated computing with BlackRock's ability to connect long-term capital to essential infrastructure.

"Together, we can help deliver the compute capacity that companies need to grow and create more jobs, supporting the continued growth of the US and global economies, while creating attractive, long-term investment opportunities for our clients."

Blackstone chief operating officer and president Jon Gray shared the same sentiment.

"Nvidia has created extraordinary demand for its compute through an intense focus on customer value and versatile technology," Gray said.

"We continue to be enormous investors globally across the Nvidia ecosystem, and this announcement further underscores our confidence in their platform and the future of AI infrastructure."

The partnerships remain subject to execution of the final agreements.