Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust has successfully raised $1.75 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, reflecting strong investor appetite for artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company stated it sold 87.5 million shares at a fixed price of $20 per share. The shares commenced trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BXDC.
This acquisition vehicle, managed by the asset manager, is designed to purchase built and leased properties that benefit from the AI boom. According to its filings, the real estate investment trust will target newly constructed data centers valued between $250 million and $1.5 billion, leasing them to investment-grade hyperscale data center operators.
The IPO represents two key strategic moves for the alternative asset manager, which oversees $1.3 trillion in assets: aiming to become the world's largest investor in AI infrastructure and expanding its reach beyond pension and endowment funds to include individual investors. The offering further advances the firm's broad strategy in the data center sector.
The company previously disclosed, "The total addressable market for stabilized data centers is expected to reach $1 trillion over the next five years, and we believe the industry represents a significant investment opportunity." Data indicates this IPO is the largest to date for a so-called "blind pool" REIT, as the company has not yet acquired any data center assets.
According to the filings, investors in the offering will receive additional bonus shares equivalent to 1% of their purchased shares, rounded down to the nearest whole share. An affiliate of Blackstone Group LP expressed interest in purchasing up to $200 million worth of shares in the investment vehicle, subject to the total purchase price net of bonus shares.
Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust will be externally managed by an affiliated entity of Blackstone Group LP, which will receive a base management fee and an incentive fee. For 24 months following the completion of the offering, the trust will have priority over other Blackstone funds to acquire yield-oriented, stabilized, long-term, turnkey data center projects presented by the company.
The offering was led by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Barclays PLC, Bank of America Corporation, Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Royal Bank of Canada, and Wells Fargo & Company.