Google and US investor build joint data centers based on Google TPUs

US investor Blackstone and Google have founded a joint venture for new data centers that will be based on Google's own AI accelerators. For this, Blackstone is investing 5 billion US dollars, while Google is not only supplying the TPUs but also providing its manager to head the new company. The first data center is scheduled to start operations in 2027 and will then offer 500 megawatts of computing capacity, with the new company aiming to expand this over time.

Through the joint venture with Google, Blackstone is further expanding its investments in data centers and artificial intelligence (AI). Earlier this year, it became known that the US company is planning a data center in North Rhine-Westphalia for four billion euros. In addition, the US investor recently founded a multi-billion dollar joint venture with Anthropic, with Blackstone's stake being 300 million dollars and the focus being on the distribution of AI tools to companies. Blackstone describes itself as the “largest global provider of data centers”.

For a new project, the US investor has found a partner in Google, which reportedly wants to scale up its TPU business significantly. Until now, Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) have been predominantly used for Google Cloud, where customers can utilize AI computing capacity. Following an agreement between Google and Meta Platforms, apparently decided in February of this year, whereby the Facebook group wants to buy Google's TPUs and use them in its data centers, the joint venture with Blackstone is the next step for Google to become a hardware supplier for AI data centers.

New data center operator still without a name

The joint venture between Google and Blackstone was founded according to company statements to set up a new company in the USA. This company is to offer “efficient data center capacity” based on Google TPUs, thus giving customers another option to use these cloud TPUs besides Google Cloud. Blackstone and Google have not yet revealed a name for the new US company, but Benjamin Treynor Sloss will head it. As a Google executive, according to Blackstone, he has two decades of experience in building and operating Google's global infrastructure and its operations.

Despite being led by a Google manager, Blackstone is set to become the majority owner of the new US company, reports the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Blackstone is expected to support computing capacity and its expansion with investments of around 25 billion dollars. This involves additional data centers identified by Google and Blackstone for the joint venture, some of which are already under construction, according to informed sources.

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