MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s ACS is close to striking a 23 billion euro ($26.8 billion) partnership with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners to develop data centres, newspaper Expansion reported on Thursday, citing unnamed market sources.

Under this agreement, the U.S. asset manager GIP is set to take a 50% stake in the ACS Digital & Energy unit, Expansion said, consisting of 5 billion euros in equity capital – to be contributed progressively – and 18 billion euros in debt.

ACS and BlackRock declined to comment, while GIP did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The report comes as surging demand for AI computing and limited power capacity is driving valuations for digital infrastructure to record levels.

ACS had targeted its data centre business to reach a val

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