FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration created on June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) -Brookfield Asset Management launched a $100 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure program in partnership with Nvidia and Kuwait Investment Authority, the Canadian company said on Wednesday, as demand for computing and energy to support AI applications accelerates.
The program will be anchored by a new Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, which is launching on Wednesday with a target of $10 billion in equity commitments.
The fund has already secured $5 billion from investors including Brookfield, chipmaker Nvidia and KIA.
Brookfield said the fund will acquire up to $100 billion of AI infrastructure assets, including energy, land, data centers and compute capacity, supported by additional co-investor capital and financing.
Brookfield is one of the world's largest investors in the AI value chain, with more than 100 billion euros ($115.83 billion) invested across digital infrastructure, renewable power and semiconductor manufacturing worldwide.
The surge in AI adoption is fueling demand for massive infrastructure investments, including data centers, high-performance computing and power generation, as companies race to secure capacity for AI workloads.
Sikander Rashid, head of AI infrastructure at Brookfield, said that AI is creating "one of the largest infrastructure build outs in history" and will require $7 trillion of capital over the next decade.
The fund's initial investments include a $5 billion framework agreement with Bloom Energy to install up to 1 gigawatt of behind-the-meter power solutions for data centers and AI factories.
Earlier this year, Brookfield announced plans to invest up to 95 billion Swedish crowns ($10.01 billion) in an AI data center in Sweden and committed 20 billion euros to AI projects in France.
($1 = 0.8633 euros)
($1 = 9.4868 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Devika Nair and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Anil D'Silva and Maju Samuel)
