Significant 25 billion USD investment partnership, announced between ADQ and US private equity firm Energy Capital Partners. This partnership also launched in the surging power generation field into the US, focusing on the huge energy demand of data centres.
| Partnership Details and Goals |
The joint venture would deploy capital across projects able to produce 25 gigawatts of power. Growth will come from developing greenfield sites, building new power plants and expanding existing infrastructure. One of the key targets is to meet the fast-growing energy demand of data centres, hyperscale cloud hosting companies and other energy-intensive sectors. The collaboration underlines the increasing need for reliable and high-quality power supply for these rapidly emerging sectors with a special focus on developing captive power plants sited on/near to data centres.
Founded in 2018, ADQ manages $249 billion of assets and emphasizes investments that are critical to infrastructure and global supply chains. ECP is one of the largest private owners of power generation and renewable energy assets in the US and has raised over $31 billion of capital commitments since its launch in 2005. The partnership intends to offer long-term solutions to enhance energy supply as the US data centre sector expands.
US Electricity Demand Had Climbed 15% Compared to 2021
The investment comes as the United States faces escalating demand for electricity. After about 15 years of almost level use, electric power use was trending up. This growth is driven by multiple drivers in these sectors including more data centres being constructed, expanding manufacturing facilities, increasing uptake of electric vehicles and the impacts of warmer and longer summertime months.
This pressure for power is particularly pronounced in the data centre industry, where the backbone that supports artificial intelligence and cloud computing is rapidly expanding. Giant companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google are waging a fierce war with each other to lead the wave of the AI era, and this race is leading to a huge increase in the energy use of these data centres.
In-Depth Estimates of Data Centre Energy Consumption
Data centres in the US have seen a threefold increase in load growth over the last decade, according to a DoE report (December 2024). Electricity use in total data centres is forecast to double or triple by 2028. Now, a 2024 International Energy Agency (IEA) report rounds this out, announcing that the US data centre sector will be responsible for more than a third of the rise in electricity demand until 2026.
And the IEA projects global total electricity consumption from data centres will exceed 1,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2026 compared to an estimated 460 TWh in 2022. Per year, this would be breathable and this is comparable with the electricity consumption of a country like Japan and it shows the scale of the responsibility to data centre industry related to energy consumption.
UAE: Keen on Strategic AI Investments
This partnership’s announcement comes on the eve of a visit to Washington by His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the chairman of ADQ and national security advisor of the United Arab Emirates. During his visit, His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon met with a range of prominent political and business executives, including President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
And the UAE wants more American technology and is being more demanding of its partnerships with the United States in the area of artificial intelligence. The push is part of a broader initiative to establish the UAE’s own AI infrastructure and diversify its economy away from dependence on hydrocarbons.
As international players battle for AI dominance, the UAE has been aggressively seeking investments in artificial intelligence, energy transition technologies and data centres. UAE investment fund MGX, for its part, joined forces with Microsoft Corp. and BlackRock last year; the three firms had aimed total investment of North of $30 billion into US fundings related to AI. Also, both Nvidia and the xAI of Elon Musk announced they would take part in the project as well.
Conclusions and Prospective Directions
This means new investment from ADQ and ECP is a strong sign they are serious about fulfilling the growing energy demands of the US data centre market. This joint effort will be key to providing high-resiliency, sustainable power needed to support the increasing demand for physical infrastructure for AI and cloud computing. What it means the partnership is also a testament to the growing relevance of international cooperation in navigating the intertwined challenges of the energy transition and the burgeoning digital economy. The UAE is riding on its investments in AI Solutions and other related technology and therefore placing itself ahead in the global technology space.
