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Blackstone's private equity unit is making a new acquisition, deploying capital in the energy transition sector.
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US Hyperscalers to Spend Up to $725 Billion on AI Infrastructure in 2026
The top five US hyperscalers are projecting a combined capital expenditure of $660 billion to $725 billion for 2026, nearly double their 2025 outlays, as the AI build-out shifts from software to physical infrastructure. Microsoft is guiding for roughly $175 billion in adjusted capital expenditure for both FY2026 and FY2027, with two-thirds of quarterly spend going to short-lived assets like CPUs and GPUs and the rest to long-lived data center infrastructure, and it added 1 gigawatt of capacity in Q3 FY2026, doubling its global footprint in two years. Amazon AWS has raised its 2026 capex guidance to approximately $220 billion, with CEO Andy Jassy saying AI capacity is expected to remain constrained through 2027 and contracted demand extending into 2028. Meta saw profit drop 14% in Q2 2026 despite a 28% revenue increase as its build-out, including a 1 gigawatt data center in Ohio and a Louisiana facility that could scale to 5 gigawatts, compressed margins, while Alphabet raised its 2026 capex guidance to as much as $205 billion and its Google Cloud backlog more than doubled year-over-year to $240 billion. The Stargate joint venture involving Oracle, OpenAI and others targets up to $500 billion in infrastructure investment by 2029, and Oracle's FY2026 capex reached $55.7 billion, more than doubling from the previous year.
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Citi: Data Center Opposition Has Not Weakened AI Construction Pipeline
Citi says growing political opposition to artificial intelligence infrastructure ahead of the November U.S. midterm elections has not materially weakened the data center construction pipeline. Data center development has become a bipartisan flashpoint, with local governments introducing moratoriums and at least 15 state legislatures proposing tighter regulatory restrictions, yet spending remains strong as AI infrastructure demand continues to support development. The impact has been concentrated among speculative and early-stage projects, which are increasingly delayed or cancelled during local approval processes, while late-stage developments that have already secured sites and grid connections continue to move ahead. Hyperscalers are seeking workarounds to power constraints and local restrictions, with Amazon pursuing direct investment in nuclear development with Dominion Energy and Meta securing a major nuclear power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy. Citi does not expect another market shock comparable to the emergence of DeepSeek, arguing investors have already adjusted to the prospect of highly efficient Chinese models, though it flags a potentially greater risk from governments restricting models deemed too dangerous, which could abruptly create excess computing capacity.
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Tata Steel Seeks Fresh Government Funding as Port Talbot EAF Delayed
Tata Steel has approached the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology in recent weeks to discuss a new multimillion-pound support package, according to Sky News. The request is in addition to the £500m grant awarded to Tata Steel in 2023 to build an electric arc furnace at Port Talbot, part of a £1.25bn investment in the site that was supposed to have the new EAF operational by early 2028. Delays to the grid connection timetable mean the EAF will now not be up and running until late 2028 or early 2029, and the company has calculated that rising project costs and foregone sales from the delay would significantly escalate its overall cost. The precise sum sought was unclear, though industry sources said it was likely to run to hundreds of millions of pounds, and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has been briefed on the approach. The plan was aimed at preserving 5,000 steelmaking jobs across the UK, although 2,500 roles have already been lost as part of the transition, and the last of Port Talbot's blast furnaces closed in 2024. Tata Steel and the Department for Business both declined to comment.