From Power Grids to Data Centers: The Overlooked Winners in the AI Gold Rush

The AI gyration is driving astir insatiable request for hardware similar high-performance GPUs, CPUs, networking equipment, and storage. Demand for this hardware is truthful beardown that AI companies are buying Nvidia's GPUs and representation chips from Micron manus implicit fist. As a result, the stock prices of AI hardware companies person skyrocketed successful caller years.

However, hardware is lone portion of the estimated $5.2 trillion successful superior spending McKinsey sees connected AI infrastructure done 2030. Companies volition besides request to put heavy successful processing the carnal data center shells, powerfulness grids, and electricity-generating capableness to enactment the AI boom. Here's a look astatine immoderate of the overlooked pick-and-shovel plays that are important to the AI golden rush.

AI exertion requires specialized computing infrastructure. The centerpiece is an AI factory, a purpose-built information halfway that houses captious hardware. In summation to the hardware, this carnal gathering ammunition requires precocious cooling systems and entree to a important magnitude of reliable power.

Several companies specialize successful processing information centers (shells and operating facilities). For example, data halfway REITs specified arsenic Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) and Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) play a important relation successful helping make carnal existent property to enactment AI. Equinix is gathering retired respective xScale information centers (large-scale, AI-ready facilities). In 2024, it formed a $15 cardinal associated task to acquisition onshore and physique respective caller state-of-the-art xScale facilities. Meanwhile, Digital Realty launched its archetypal U.S. Hyperscale Data Center Fund successful 2025 to enactment up to $10 cardinal of information halfway investments. It besides partnered with Blackstone in precocious 2023 connected a $7 cardinal associated task to physique large-scale information centers.

Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE: BIPC)(NYSE: BIP) is different notable information halfway developer. The institution has acquired respective planetary information halfway platforms implicit the years to physique up its capabilities. It presently operates implicit 140 information centers worldwide, with a full capableness of 1.6 gigawatts (GW). It sees imaginable to make an further 3.4 GW of capableness crossed its level successful the future. Additionally, Brookfield is investing successful different information infrastructure to enactment AI, including plans to deploy precocious substance compartment exertion from Bloom Energy to powerfulness information centers.