Within the world of real assets, infrastructure has been presenting increasingly attractive prospects for investors. And the alternative asset industry is taking notice, benefiting from the favorable investment cycle for categories such as digital infrastructure and energy, among others.
Driven by a range of ongoing global trends — including digitalization and electrification — the coming years are expected to bring a boom in infrastructure investment. Consulting firm PwC projects that spending on these types of projects will rise to 6.9 trillion dollars by 2050, up from the 4.4 trillion dollars recorded in 2024.
“Throughout that period, cumulative global investment is projected to reach 151 trillion dollars, as countries modernize transportation, energy, and industrial systems to meet the demands of AI, electrification, and urbanization,” the firm said in a recent report.
And it is precisely these trends that are setting the pace for the market, according to Macquarie, one of the leading managers in the asset class. “Infrastructure opportunities are increasingly defined by long-term structural changes rather than short-term economic cycles,” the firm noted.
In line with these expectations, last year brought a rebound in fundraising for the asset class, reaching 250 billion dollars and more than doubling the 99 billion dollars raised by the industry in 2024 — the lowest figure in six years — according to data from With Intelligence, a unit of S&P Global Ratings.
For the firm, these figures suggest that investor confidence remains strong. “Fund managers have seen particularly high demand for strategies such as the energy transition and data centers,” they added in their report.
They also noted that this asset class is following the path of other alternative segments by expanding its investor base. Infrastructure managers, they said, are seeking capital from private banks “with the same urgency as their private equity and private credit peers.” This has sparked a race to develop products suited to a wide range of investor profiles.
The golden promise of AI
Beyond the competitive world of private capital, the artificial intelligence boom has had its own effect on the infrastructure asset space: the rise of data centers.
The excitement generated by this technology — described by many as a true industrial revolution that could affect every aspect of the modern economy — has created strong investor demand for digital infrastructure aimed at capturing this growth.
“The AI revolution, an extraordinary level of investment in data centers, equipment, chips, energy infrastructure, and other related areas continues to drive economic growth, and we see no signs that the engine is slowing,” said Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone, during the firm’s first-quarter earnings call with investors.
The firm — the world’s largest alternative asset manager — is betting heavily on this trend through strategic investments in artificial intelligence. “We believe Blackstone has become the world’s largest investor in AI-related infrastructure,” the executive stated, adding that this gives them “a front-row seat” to future developments.
According to Macquarie, beyond data centers, digitalization is also driving demand for fiber-optic networks and communications infrastructure. Development is expanding across different markets as well: “Supply constraints in established markets are supporting pricing power and encouraging development in new regions.”
Overall, the path appears set. PwC estimates that annual investment in data center buildings will increase from 113.8 billion dollars in 2024 to 251.8 billion dollars by 2027. That represents a 2.2-fold increase in just a few years. Looking ahead, the consultancy expects this figure to reach 1.5 trillion dollars by 2032, with a “remarkable short-term escalation” followed by a period of stock improvement.
A more electric economy
Alongside AI demand and its data centers, energy has also become a major focus, supported by the broader global trend of the energy transition.
“Electricity demand is rising at a pace we haven’t seen in decades, driven by electrification, reindustrialization, and digital infrastructure,” said Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Corporation — another major infrastructure fund — during his own investor call. Meeting this demand will require “enormous amounts of new generation capacity,” he added, creating opportunities for solar, wind, nuclear energy, and batteries.
“While digitalization, decarbonization, and deglobalization will continue evolving, each is driving significant long-term demand for new infrastructure,” the executive added.
Macquarie agrees with this assessment, arguing that energy demand is expected to keep rising, underscoring the need for reliable and low-cost energy solutions. For the firm, solar and wind assets, along with battery storage, continue gaining traction — and market share — due to falling costs and rising demand.
In this segment, PwC projects that the infrastructure investment boom in energy will lift annual spending to 1.1 trillion dollars by 2050. This marks a sharp increase from the 631 billion dollars recorded by the industry in 2024, totaling 25 trillion dollars over the period.
“Reflecting the pace of electrification, by 2025 annual investment in energy storage will reach around 91 billion dollars,” the consultancy stated in its report, equivalent to 3.7 times 2024 levels. Capital allocated to transmission and distribution, meanwhile, is expected to grow 2.6 times to 472 billion dollars.
