Banks chasing data centers

Citigroup is building a bigger business around financing data centers as artificial intelligence pushes projects into the multibillion-dollar range. (bloomberg.com) Citi formed a dedicated artificial intelligence infrastructure group in late February 2026, according to an internal memo reported by Bloomberg and Business Insider. The bank estimates about $3 trillion of capital will be needed by 2030 for data centers, computing and related artificial intelligence buildout. (bloomberg.com) (businessinsider.com) The push is not limited to banks arranging loans and bond sales. On April 10, 2026, Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust said it had publicly filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering tied to stabilized, newly constructed data centers. (blackstone.com) (sec.gov) Bloomberg reported Blackstone plans to raise about $2 billion for that vehicle, which would buy already built and leased properties positioned to benefit from demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Blackstone said the trust intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BXDC if the offering is completed. (bloomberg.com) (blackstone.com) A data center is a warehouse-sized building full of servers, power equipment and cooling systems that keep cloud software and artificial intelligence models running. Financing those campuses now reaches across bank loans, private credit, real estate debt and infrastructure funds because the projects are larger, more power-hungry and more complex than a typical office or warehouse deal. (bloomberg.com) (businessinsider.com) Wall Street firms have been reorganizing to chase that fee pool. Business Insider reported that Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Citizens have all built teams that combine industry bankers with capital-markets and infrastructure specialists to handle data-center deals. (businessinsider.com) Citi is trying to use that moment to close ground on larger rivals in a market where even insiders say nobody has long-held control. Business Insider reported that Achintya Mangla, Citi’s head of financing for investment banking, is leading the bank’s effort to knit together debt capital markets, private capital and corporate banking around these projects. (businessinsider.com) (assetservicingtimes.com) Blackstone’s filing shows how private capital is moving in alongside the banks. The prospectus says the trust will target “mission-critical data center assets” and points to tenants such as hyperscalers, the biggest cloud companies that lease enormous amounts of server space. (sec.gov) (msn.com) The bottleneck is not just money. Recent coverage has pointed to power supply, construction timelines and insurance risk as constraints as more lenders and funds crowd into the sector. (arstechnica.com) (msn.com) For now, the direction on Wall Street is clear: banks want the underwriting and advisory fees, and firms like Blackstone want permanent pools of capital that can own the buildings after they are leased. (blackstone.com) (businessinsider.com)