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The US-based I Squared Capital has agreed to deploy up to $2 billion in real estate and infrastructure assets owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its portfolio companies.
PIF and I Squared will identify companies in the Saudi wealth fund’s portfolio that come under the digital infrastructure and district cooling divisions, with I Squared allocating up to $1 billion in each of these areas with the option to scale across additional related business themes.
The entities said the collaboration is expected to “accelerate project delivery and increase the contribution of third‑party capital into opportunities across the portfolio”.
I Squared is an independent infrastructure investment manager, with investments in a diverse range of sectors including energy infrastructure, utilities, transport and logistics, and digital infrastructure.
PIF, which manages close to $1.15 trillion in assets, has been heavily deploying capital into building data centres in the kingdom. In May, Reuters reported the PIF-backed artificial intelligence company Humain mandated Goldman Sachs to advise on a financing package to build data centres in the kingdom worth 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion).
Integrating district cooling with data centres have become essential for scaling regional digital infrastructure with several Gulf states in a race to power their economic transformation.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Brinda Darasha)
