Morrison’s CDC play – the realities of AI data centres

Lately, it’s rare to have a conversation, both in professional settings and social ones, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not brought up in some capacity. The popularity of software such as ChatGPT had dragged AI into the common parlance, but the question remains whether the sector can keep pace with the increasing demand for processing capacity. The answer, well, maybe. The money most definitely is there, from Blackstone pledging £10 billion for AI data centres in the UK to Brookfield’s €20 billion plan for facilities in France, and both of these pale in comparison to Meta’s $200 billion investment proposal to build up AI capacity. The crutch for this sector is seemingly twofold – grid connection and cooling, problems that cannot be solved by “throwing dumb money at them”, according to an industry source. This is where experienced and pragmatic infrastructure investors such as New Zealand-headquartered Morrison have a crucial role to play.