Google, Blackstone announce $5 billion TPU cloud venture to meet AI data centre demand

Google and Blackstone have announced a joint venture of $5 billion to launch a new TPU cloud company which will aim at meeting the increasing demand for AI data center capacity. The new venture will focus on bringing 500 MW of capacity online by 2027 by combining Google’s AI hardware and software with Blackstone’s infrastructure expertise. Google and Blackstone will create a US-based company offering Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) as a compute-as-a-service option. This gives customers another way to access TPUs beyond Google Cloud. For those unaware, TPUs are custom-built chips optimized for training and inference of advanced AI models, powering workloads for leading AI labs, financial firms, and high-performance computing applications. They also underpin Google’s Gemini and other AI-driven products.Blackstone is the world’s biggest alternative asset manager, with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management, and the largest global provider of data centers has announced that it will make in initial $5 billion equity investment to bring 500 MW of capacity online in 2027, with plans to scale significantly over time. The joint venture between Blackstone and Google is intended to give customers even more choice and flexibility for running their AI workloads on TPUs. Blackstone has named Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a Google executive with over two decades of experience building and operating Google’s global infrastructure and operations, to lead the new company as CEO. Google will supply hardware, including TPUs, as well as software and services to the new company so it can rapidly accelerate to meet the growing demand for accelerated computing, leveraging the benefit of Google’s technical and domain expertise. “This partnership combines Google's advanced AI compute technology with Blackstone's expertise in digital infrastructure to help meet surging global demand for advanced AI workloads,” said Google.Jon Gray, President and COO of Blackstone, said: “We see a generational opportunity to invest capital at scale building AI infrastructure. This new company has enormous potential as it helps to meet the unprecedented demand for compute. We are incredibly proud to partner with Google – bringing together their world class TPUs and AI capabilities with Blackstone’s exceptional strength in energy and digital infrastructure.”Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said: “This joint venture with Blackstone helps meet growing demand for TPUs, which are optimized specifically for efficiency and performance in the AI era. Together, we’re accelerating AI transformation and providing more options for organizations to access accelerated compute capability.”