The Biggest Data Center M&A Deals and What They Were Worth

The biggest data center mergers and acquisitions tell the story of how a niche real estate asset became one of the most sought-after infrastructure classes in the world. This article, part of the Data Center Economy hub, ranks the largest transactions, explains who bought and sold, and shows how valuations are calculated per megawatt and per unit of EBITDA. For the investor angle, see how to invest in data centers; for the firms doing most of the buying, read private equity’s data center empires.

What are the biggest data center M&A deals of all time?

By headline value, the largest data center platform acquisitions are Aligned Data Centers (~$40bn), AirTrunk (A$24bn+, about US$16bn), CyrusOne (~$15bn), Switch (~$11bn), CoreSite (~$10.1bn) and QTS (~$10bn). All but CoreSite were bought by private infrastructure or private equity investors.

The list is dominated by take-privates and sales between funds. Blackstone’s QTS purchase in 2021 and KKR and GIP’s CyrusOne deal, completed in March 2022, removed two of the handful of US-listed data center REITs from public markets. DigitalBridge and IFM Investors did the same with Switch in December 2022. American Tower’s purchase of CoreSite in 2021 stands out as a strategic buyer moving from towers into interconnection-rich data centers.

Earlier landmark deals were smaller but set the template. Digital Realty bought European operator Interxion for $8.4bn in 2019 and US hyperscale developer DuPont Fabros for $4.95bn in 2017, according to Data Center Knowledge. Those deals were about building global footprints; today’s are about securing powered land and contracted AI capacity.

Source: Company announcements; Synergy Research Group; S&P Global Market Intelligence; Data Center Knowledge; W.Media; Singtel; Financier Worldwide; RBC Capital Markets.

Why was the $40bn Aligned Data Centers deal so important?

Aligned is the largest data center transaction ever and the first acquisition by the AI Infrastructure Partnership, a vehicle linking BlackRock’s GIP, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, Microsoft, Nvidia and xAI. It signalled that sovereign wealth, technology companies and infrastructure funds would pool capital to buy whole platforms.

The deal was announced in October 2025 at an enterprise value of about $40bn, with Macquarie Asset Management’s funds selling 100% of the equity. At announcement Aligned had about 50 campuses and more than 5 GW of operational and planned capacity across the US and Latin America, according to Capital Brief. By the time the transaction closed in 2026, the closing announcement described 51 campuses and more than 6.4 GW, and the buyers committed an extra $5bn of growth capital. The partnership aims to raise $30bn of equity, with potential to reach $100bn including debt.

The structure matters as much as the size. Having chipmakers and cloud customers inside the buying consortium blurs the line between landlord and tenant. Critics see this as part of the circular capital flows discussed in our article on the AI bubble debate; supporters argue it simply aligns long-term capital with the companies that need capacity most.

How much data center M&A happens each year?

Deal value hit records in both 2024 and 2025. Synergy Research Group put 2024 closed deals at about $73bn, while S&P Global Market Intelligence counted more than $69bn across 113 completed deals in 2025, about $8bn above its previous record. Different counting rules explain the gap.

Synergy said 2024 beat the previous peak of $52bn set in 2022, and that it had logged 1,514 data center M&A deals worth $324bn since 2015. AirTrunk, which closed in late December 2024 at nearly $16bn, was the largest deal it had ever recorded closing at the time. Synergy later calculated 575 data-center-oriented deals worth $151bn since the start of 2024, with 84% of the value coming from private equity.

S&P Global’s series shows how quickly the market swung: roughly $15bn of activity in 2023, more than $60bn in 2024 and over $69bn in 2025, according to DCD’s summary. S&P noted that transaction counts actually fell in 2025, so the record value came from a few very large deals, and that 32 data-center-focused infrastructure funds launched that year. A separate CNBC tally using S&P data put deal value through November 2025 at about $61bn, alongside $182bn of data center-related debt issuance.

Who are the biggest buyers of data centers?

Private infrastructure and private equity funds — Blackstone, KKR, Brookfield, GIP (now part of BlackRock), Macquarie, DigitalBridge, Stonepeak and others — are the dominant buyers. Strategic acquirers such as Digital Realty, Equinix and American Tower, plus sovereign funds and, increasingly, technology companies, make up the rest.

Blackstone is the most prolific single buyer, owning QTS and AirTrunk and investing through vehicles such as Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, which listed on the NYSE in 2026. KKR backs CyrusOne and in February 2026 agreed, alongside Singtel, to acquire the remaining 82% of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres for S$6.6bn (about US$5.1bn), implying an enterprise value of about S$13.8bn including leverage and committed capex, according to Singtel.

Strategic consolidation continues too. Digital Realty agreed in mid-2026 to buy Blackstone’s interest in three fully leased 96 MW Northern Virginia facilities at a gross asset value of $7.8bn, paying $3.5bn for the equity in a mix of $1.2bn cash and $2.3bn of its own shares, according to W.Media. Equinix’s third-quarter 2026 results included a one-time fee linked to a joint venture with Nordic operator atNorth. And SoftBank agreed to buy DigitalBridge itself — an asset manager with about $108bn of assets under management — for about $4bn, or $16 a share. Our ranking of the largest colocation providers shows how these deals have reshaped the league table.

How are data center acquisitions valued?

Buyers typically value data center platforms on enterprise value to EBITDA, value per megawatt of built or planned capacity, and the contracted cash flows from long leases. Secured power, tenant credit quality and development pipeline drive premiums.

EBITDA multiples

RBC estimated that Blackstone paid about 25 times 2021 EBITDA for QTS, a 21% premium to its share price. M&A adviser CT Acquisitions describes recent platform deals at roughly 20x to 30x EV/EBITDA, with hyperscale-ready campuses at 25x to 30x or more, multi-megawatt carrier-neutral colocation at 22x to 28x, and smaller edge or regional sites at 15x to 20x. It contrasts this with about 16x for the broader private infrastructure universe. These are adviser estimates rather than disclosed deal terms.

Value per megawatt

Per-MW metrics compare platforms of different sizes. VanEck’s Matthew Sigel calculated that Aligned’s $40bn price implied roughly $8m per megawatt of operational and planned capacity, about 160% above the roughly $3m per MW at which he said listed bitcoin miners with power assets traded. Built, leased capacity is worth much more: Digital Realty’s $7.8bn gross asset value for 288 MW works out to about $27m per MW by simple division, reflecting 15-year leases to tenants with a blended AA- rating and 3.6% annual escalators. For context, Cushman & Wakefield’s 2026 cost guide puts average greenfield construction for the most modern facilities at $17.6m per MW; see our article on {L(‘data-center-construction-cost-per-mw’, ‘data center construction costs’)}.

S&P Global found investment concentrating on data centers with secured power, which command higher valuations. That explains why buyers increasingly pay for land and grid capacity before buildings exist, and why our coverage of the {L(‘data-center-power-grid-bottleneck’, ‘power bottleneck’)} matters for deal pricing.

What are the biggest data center supply-chain acquisitions?

Cooling and power companies have been buying aggressively to serve AI racks. The largest recent deals include Eaton’s $9.5bn purchase of Boyd Thermal, Ecolab’s $4.75bn cash acquisition of CoolIT Systems and Vertiv’s roughly $1bn purchase of PurgeRite.

Eaton bought Boyd Thermal from Goldman Sachs Asset Management to add liquid-cooling capability, according to DCD’s 2025 review. Ecolab agreed in 2026 to acquire CoolIT Systems from KKR-managed funds for $4.75bn in cash, per the Datacentres.com tracker. Vertiv paid about $1bn in cash plus up to $250m in earnouts for PurgeRite, a maintenance services firm. Each deal reflects the shift to direct-to-chip and immersion cooling covered in our guide to {L(‘data-center-cooling-liquid-immersion’, ‘data center cooling’)}.

Energy deals are part of the same trend. Alphabet agreed in December 2025 to buy energy infrastructure developer Intersect Power for $4.75bn, according to DCD, effectively acquiring a pipeline of generation to support its data centers. And Nvidia invested $2bn in CoreWeave Class A shares in January 2026 at $87.20 a share — an equity stake rather than a takeover, but another example of chip suppliers funding their customers.

Which data center deals are happening outside the United States?

Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America all host large transactions. AirTrunk (Australia and Asia), ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (Singapore-based, multi-country), Chindata (China), NorthC (Netherlands and Germany) and Elea (Brazil) are recent examples.

Bain Capital sold Chindata to a consortium led by Shenzhen Dongyangguang Industry for about $4bn, excluding its Bridge DC business, according to DCD. In Europe, Antin Infrastructure Partners agreed to buy NorthC from DWS in a deal press-reported at up to €2bn. In Latin America, I Squared Capital took a majority stake in Brazil’s Elea Data Centers, which has 300 MW of powered land, in April 2026. DCD also reported market talk that EQT was seeking a buyer for GlobalConnect at around €8bn. See our regional coverage of Asia-Pacific and European data center investment.

Cross-border deals face growing scrutiny. Data sovereignty rules, foreign investment screening and export controls on advanced chips can all affect who is allowed to buy what, especially in China and in markets courting Gulf capital.

What is next for data center M&A in 2026 and beyond?

Expect continued large platform trades, more IPOs as an exit route, consolidation among neoclouds and power-linked deals. Both S&P Global and Synergy expect activity to remain strong, with power availability and AI demand the main swing factors.

Public markets are reopening as an alternative to private sales. Switch filed confidentially for a US IPO in August 2026, with Reuters and Bloomberg reports suggesting a valuation of $50–80bn including debt — five to seven times the $11bn paid in 2022. Brookfield-backed Csquare and SoftBank-backed SB Energy have also announced listing plans. S&P Global said neoclouds, whose funding tripled to more than $35bn in 2025, are in an unenviable position as chip supply improves and could face a consolidation wave in which hyperscalers buy distressed capacity. Our profile of the neoclouds explores that scenario.

For investors and operators, the key questions are whether buyers can keep financing deals at current multiples and whether power-rich land remains scarce. The answers will shape the market outlook to 2030.

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