Surging demand for AI infrastructure is reshaping private capital fundraising strategies, with data centres in particular attracting growing investment.
That’s the conclusion of experts from global law firm White & Case. In newly-published insight, they state that the scale of private capital flowing into AI infrastructure is influencing broader allocation strategies.
Sandra Rafferty, co-head of the Global Infrastructure Industry Group at White & Case, said: “The scale of capital now being directed towards AI infrastructure is starting to reshape deployment strategies across the private capital market.
“Data centre projects are becoming larger, far more complex and significantly more power-intensive, which is increasing investor focus not just on connectivity and location, but also on long-term energy access and supply chain resilience.
Rafferty added that as this demand for AI infrastructure continues to accelerate, “we expect deal activity across digital infrastructure, energy, and related real assets to stay strong throughout 2026 and beyond”.
“The market is clearly moving towards integrated infrastructure investment strategies, especially where investors find they can combine digital infrastructure exposure with access to stable power and energy capacity.”
AI appetite
White & Case found that investors are increasingly drawn to sectors tied to long-term AI growth where appetite is expected to continue rising. As a result, fundraising is becoming more thematic, with general partners increasingly looking to raise capital around specific AI and digital infrastructure opportunities.
The law firm points out that data centres became the most popular property type for sector-specific real estate fundraising in the first half of 2025 for the first time, accounting for 35% of capital raised, while four of the ten largest real estate funds closed during the period were focused on data centre investment.
“This strong investor appetite for exposure to these assets is also resulting in high transaction volumes as fund managers deploy this capital with data centres representing 41% of digital infrastructure deals in 2025, up from 26% a year earlier,” it explains in its insight paper.
Meanwhile, S&P Global also reported that private equity investment in US data centres reached $45.7 billion in 2025, the highest level in at least five years.
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White & Case believes that there is likely to be high demand and competition over the short-term for access to these funds and transactions, with data from McKinsey suggesting that global investment requirements for data centres could reach $7 trillion by 2030, reflecting the scale of infrastructure needed to support accelerating AI adoption.
AI infrastructure investments are also attracting increasing interest from across participants in private equity, infrastructure and private credit, especially as data centres get bigger and become more capital intensive.
As these projects grow in terms of scale and complexity, investors are paying much closer attention not only to connectivity and location, but also to whether projects have access to reliable power and energy supply, which is becoming a critical factor in how AI infrastructure investments are assessed and financed.
Growing electricity demand from AI data centres is also creating a significant tailwind for energy and infrastructure investment more widely, especially across solar, battery storage and wind.
AI infrastructure
Emily Brown, co-head of the Global Private Capital Industry Group at White & Case, said the current fundraising environment “is becoming more concentrated around strategies where limited partners see clear long-term structural demand, and AI infrastructure is definitely emerging as one of the clearest examples of that shift”.
“Data centres and digital infrastructure are attracting significant attention from limited partners, not just because of the scale of projected AI growth, but also because investors are looking for assets that they believe can deliver resilient long-term value in a more uncertain market.”
“We are also seeing fundraising become much more thematic and specialised, with firms increasingly launching dedicated AI and digital infrastructure funds to meet investor demand. Looking ahead, we expect this trend to continue through 2026 as GPs and LPs compete to secure exposure to the infrastructure underpinning AI adoption and digital transformation more widely.”