KKR Sees $250 Billion Spent Annually From Data Center Boom

  • Alternative investment manager is leaning into data centers
  • Operators of the facilities looking for new power sources

KKR started investing in data centers about five years ago.

Photographer: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images
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Soaring demand for data centers to support artificial intelligence and cloud-computing will boost global spending in the sector to $250 billion a year, according to KKR & Co.

The US is the biggest developer of data centers. That infrastructure consumes about 16 to 18 gigawatts of power, compared with about 6 gigawatts each in Europe and Asia, Waldemar Szlezak, KKR’s global head of digital infrastructure, said in an interview. For comparison, 1 gigawatt is enough to supply more than 850,000 average US households.