Blackstone scouts sites for Australian power platform to feed its data centres

Blackstone is considering developing its own renewable generation in Australia to supply its data centres, according to sources who spoke to NPM. The sources said the energy business is being set up from nothing, with a few modest purchases of land and assets made so far out of public view. Blackstone and AirTrunk declined to comment.

Government policy is heading the same way. In August, state and federal ministers agreed to work up national standards for large data centres under Australia's planned AI laws, which the federal government intends to legislate in early 2027. The draft rules would set minimum requirements for large facilities covering energy use, including providing their own power, plus water consumption, land use, skills and workforce training.

Blackstone's Australian data centre holdings sit in AirTrunk, which it bought in 2024 together with Canadian pension fund CPPIB for A$24bn (US$16.7bn). NPM described that deal as the largest data centre acquisition anywhere at the time. AirTrunk now runs more than 755 MW across five assets in Melbourne and Sydney. It also has sites operating or being developed in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.

AirTrunk already buys renewable power locally. The 25 MW Mulwala solar farm in the Riverina region of New South Wales was due to connect in June, after developer European Energy signed a power purchase agreement with Google and AirTrunk.

Globally, Blackstone has put tens of billions of dollars into data centres. It paid US$10bn for QTS Data Centers in 2021, and NPM data puts QTS at 4.4 GW across 56 facilities in the US and Europe. On 7 October, AirTrunk founder and chief executive Robin Khuda told Nikkei the company plans to raise its total Japan investment to between US$27bn and US$30bn over five years.