Macquarie Group’s asset management division will invest up to US$5 billion in data centres developed by United States technology company Applied Digital Corporation.
Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) said Applied Digital had entered into a $5 billion (A$8 billion) perpetual preferred equity financing facility for MAM-managed funds to invest in its high performance computing (HPC) data centres.
MAM said its funds would invest up to $900 million in Applied Digital’s Ellendale HPC data centre campus in North Dakota.
It said these and future financing proceeds were expected to be used by Applied Digital to complete construction of the Ellendale campus, repay $180 million of bridge debt, recover about $300 million of equity invested in the campus, and meet other costs.
MAM also had a right of first refusal on all future HPC data centre project funding up to an additional $4.1 billion for 30 months following close of the deal.
“We are excited to partner with Applied Digital to build and scale its HPC data centre platform,” MAM Senior Managing Director Anton Moldan said in a media release.
Moldan said Applied Digital had access to a near-term power portfolio across North America in markets which were attractive for computing and which addressed the most demanding artificial intelligence (AI) and other HPC applications at scale.
He said the significant progress at the Ellendale campus made it a compelling opportunity for MAM and potential hyperscale customers.
“With our global experience as an owner and manager of data centre platforms, we see this as highly attractive opportunity to help build an industry-leading HPC data centre company well positioned in these high growth segments of the market,” Moldan said.
Applied Digital Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins said the company’s 85% stake in existing and future HPC assets and access to the financing facility was enough to fund the HPC project pipeline and meant it was poised for “transformative progress”.
“We are excited to have MAM’s support as we establish ourselves as a leader in the Tier 3 data centre infrastructure sector, while continuing to develop and operate large-scale, state of the art data centres for world-class customers at the forefront of the AI revolution," Cummins said.
Shares in Applied Digital (Nasdaq: APLD), which develops, builds and operates next-generation data centres and cloud infrastructure, closed 78 cents, or 9.98%, higher at US$8.54, capitalising it at US$1.8 billion.
Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG) shares closed on Tuesday at A$225.28, down 30 cents or 0.13%, giving it a market value of A$85.86 billion.