Blackstone mentioned Thursday its huge investments in information facilities wouldn’t be undermined by the low-cost synthetic intelligence fashions from China’s DeepSeek, as the necessity for bodily infrastructure was nonetheless important for AI.
The choice asset supervisor, which has $80 billion value of leased information facilities, mentioned its technique for the phase was grounded in a “very prudent approach” and touted its partnerships with “some of the biggest companies in the world.”
Knowledge facilities present the infrastructure for storing, processing and analyzing huge troves of data which might be essential for coaching and working AI fashions.
Buyers in information facilities, comparable to Blackstone, had been anticipated to be among the greatest beneficiaries of the AI growth as growing adoption led to increased demand for such infrastructure.
However the sudden arrival of DeepSeek upended the tech world and sparked a debate over demand, with worries that the emergence of a low-cost possibility might sluggish funding in information facilities.
Blackstone’s president and Chief Working Officer Jonathan Grey, in a post-earnings name with analysts, mentioned the corporate was carefully watching developments tied to DeepSeek.
Nevertheless, he expects decrease prices may but result in a wider adoption of AI, boosting demand for information facilities.
“As usage goes up significantly, there’s still a vital need for data centers. We still think it’s a very important segment,” Grey mentioned.
His feedback echo views from analysts at Jefferies earlier this week.
“In fact, we would be surprised to see hyperscalers slow their capex plans as the AI space just got even more competitive,” they wrote.
DeepSeek’s launch has triggered scrutiny from buyers, who’re anticipated to research tech giants’ AI spending plans carefully within the subsequent few weeks.
CEOs of Microsoft and Meta additionally defended huge AI spending this week saying it was essential to staying aggressive within the new area.
Blackstone shares had been final down almost 4% in afternoon buying and selling.
