Blackstone: Industry needs to go beyond ‘do no harm’ in data centre development

In this special episode – based on a keynote interview done on 24 March at our Global Summit (live.peievents.com/infrastructure-investor-glo…) in Berlin – editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Sean Klimczak, infrastructureinvestor.com/database/institutio… global head of infrastructure.

As the world’s largest investor in data centres (infrastructureinvestor.com/the-pipeline-blacks…), a significant part of the discussion centred on how Blackstone is investing in the sector. Highlights included Klimczak’s call on the industry to move beyond a “do no harm” standard and add net benefits to the communities where data centres are built. He also spoke about how the data centre market will internationalise in 2026-27, with a particular focus on Asia-Pacific as a development hotspot.

Other talking points included Blackstone's role as a major investor in US utilities at a time of surging power demand; the risks of what Klimczack termed the “private equity-ification” of infrastructure, as the asset class’s boundaries expand; and why Europe is “for sale” and seen by Blackstone as a tremendous opportunity.