Google, Blackstone to launch AI cloud venture with planned ₹2.08 lakh crore investment

New York: Google and Blackstone on Monday announced plans to form a new artificial intelligence cloud infrastructure venture aimed at meeting growing global demand for AI computing services.

Under the partnership, Blackstone will initially invest $5 billion in equity. This will help bring 500 megawatts of data centre capacity online by 2027, with further expansion planned over time, as reported by Reuters.

The U.S.-based venture will offer data centre infrastructure along with Google’s custom artificial intelligence chips, known as Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), through a compute-as-a-service model.

According to a Bloomberg News report, the total value of the investment could eventually reach $25 billion, including leverage. The two companies did not immediately comment on the report.

Blackstone has appointed Benjamin Sloss, a longtime Google executive, as chief executive officer of the new venture.

Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of Google Cloud, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the partnership would help address rising demand for TPUs by expanding access to AI computing infrastructure for organisations.

Industry analysts said Google has been gaining a significant share of new AI-driven computing demand, supported by its cloud services and proprietary AI chips, which have attracted companies including Anthropic.

Brittain Ladd, an AI and supply chain consultant at Chang Robotics, described the venture as a “high-quality bet on sustainable growth in AI infrastructure”.

Blackstone has in recent years expanded investments in AI-linked infrastructure, including data centres, electricity generation and transmission assets, amid rising energy requirements driven by AI workloads.

Blackstone President Jon Gray was quoted by Reuters as saying that the partnership shows an increasing demand for large-scale AI infrastructure and the growing need for capital deployment in the sector.

Global spending by major technology companies on AI infrastructure, including data centres, is expected to exceed $700 billion in 2026, according to industry estimates.