Private infra, real estate capital to play larger financing role in AI data center boom, Goldman says

Microsoft
Meta Platforms
Alphabet Inc. Class A
Amazon.com, Inc.

Microsoft

MSFT

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Meta Platforms

META

0.00

Alphabet Inc. Class A

GOOGL

0.00

Amazon.com, Inc.

AMZN

0.00

- Private infrastructure and real estate capital are expected to play a larger role in financing the AI-driven data-center boom, as companies move beyond traditional forms of funding, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Tuesday.

  • Goldman increased its combined capex forecast for the four largest hyperscalers - Meta META.O, Microsoft MSFT.O, Amazon AMZN.O, and Alphabet GOOGL.O - to $5.3 trillion between fiscal years 2025 and 2030.

  • Prior to the start of first-quarter earnings, the Wall Street brokerage forecast capex at $4.5 trillion for the same period.

  • Goldman expects companies will tap into public, securitized and private markets to attain the scale and scope of this funding need.

  • "Private infrastructure and real estate will play an even larger role in the years ahead," Goldman said.

  • The boundaries between private infrastructure and real estate are blurring as data center projects extend into different categories such as land, power, building and equipment.

  • Private infrastructure's structured income generation and inflation-protection characteristics will likely boost further growth, the brokerage said.

  • "Infrastructure sits at the epicenter of multiple structural tailwinds, which we expect will drive its growth and provide additional capacity for financing," Goldman added.

  • From 2021 to 2024, the private infrastructure market grew at an annualized rate of roughly 11.5%, Goldman said.

  • Goldman expects this growth rate to increase, potentially closer to the 16% to 17% annualized growth that prevailed for much of 2012 to 2021.

  • This growth rate would push the infrastructure assets under management (AUM) comfortably above $3 trillion by 2030, the brokerage added.