Infrastructure Investing’s Trillion Dollar Opportunities: Q&A with Greg Blank

Infrastructure is no longer just bridges, tunnels and roads. It’s data centers, flexible electricity grids, modern seaports, cell towers, and more. Trillions of dollars are required, and Blackstone finds opportunity in these capital needs. We talked with Greg Blank, CEO of BXINFRA.

Where does Blackstone see the best infrastructure investment opportunities right now?

Greg Blank: We are focused on three key areas. The first is digital infrastructure—the modern economy of data centers, cell towers, and fiber. The second is energy infrastructure, which is everything needed to power the modern economy. The third is transportation infrastructure such as toll roads, airports, and ports. We see a powerful, multi-year trend related to each of these: digitization of the economy, growth in electricity demand, and increase in the movement of people and goods.

Let’s start with digital infrastructure. Why are you excited to invest in it?

GB: The largest technology companies are projected to spend over $2 trillion on data centers over the next five-to-seven years, $1 trillion inside the US and $1 trillion outside the US. (1) This is the megatrend of all megatrends, and we’re investing in it globally.

We identified the trend early—the growth in data center demand and digitization—and made a marquee acquisition in 2021 with QTS for $10 billion, a company which is now the largest data center business in the world. (3) Under our ownership, it has already grown in size more than 900%. We learned a lot from that investment about the rising demand, what customers need, and how new facilities are built. Last year, we acquired AirTrunk, the largest data center business in the Asia Pacific region. (4) We believe its growth potential is huge: The company already owns land that could support 1 gigawatt of future growth.

We’re also expanding QTS in Europe. Now, we can go to our customers and provide them with a global solution to something that has global demand. We have gone from that first investment in QTS to being the largest provider of data centers globally in just three years’ time.

"We’re investing across the entire energy infrastructure ecosystem, from transmission lines to utilities to pipelines to contracted generation."

What about energy infrastructure? What’s the opportunity there?

GB: US electricity demand has been flat for the last decade, but now we’re at an inflection point where it’s projected to grow 40% to 50% over the next decade. (5) It’s being driven by data centers, new large scale manufacturing facilities, and by the electrification of our lives. If you add an electric vehicle to your home, it can increase electricity consumption by 40%. This rising demand is going to require trillions of dollars of private capital over the next decade. We’re investing across the entire energy infrastructure ecosystem, from transmission lines to utilities to pipelines to contracted generation.

How important are renewables in this mix?

GB: Meeting the increased electricity demand will require renewables and more traditional energy sources such as natural gas generation. (7) There are good opportunities for us in both. So, we aren’t only in renewables, but they are important. We invested in the largest independent renewables company in the US, Invenergy. That one company has developed approximately 10% of all the renewables in the country. (8) What they are creating is part of how we transition from hydrocarbons to greener resources over the next few decades.

Do you think infrastructure assets give investors a sense of ownership in the economy?

GB: Yes, because these are assets investors can recognize and in some cases touch and feel. They know what a port looks like and certainly have gone through airports. They see the wind turbines and know what a data center is. People experience the cloud every day and increasingly use AI. Our investors may not initially appreciate how their capital impacts everyone’s daily lives—but then they have this moment where they recognize it, and it really brings the infrastructure concept home.

1. Dell’Oro estimates as of July 2024.
2. Morgan Stanley, February 2025.
3. Based on estimated MW leasing and footprint per DatacenterHawk as of December 2024.
4. AirTrunk as of September 2024.
5. EIA, as of November 2024 and NREL as of August 2022. Reflects total net electricity generation. Figures for 2024 and beyond reflect estimates.
6. EIA, as of November 2024 and NREL as of August 2022. Reflects total net electricity generation. Figures for 2024 and beyond reflect estimates.
7. McKinsey as of September 1, 2023.
8. Invenergy as of November 1, 2024.