Macquarie will invest up to $5 billion in data centers being built by artificial-intelligence infrastructure company Applied Digital, adding to the Australian bank’s substantial AI-related investments.

Investment firm Macquarie is to invest billions of dollars into data center firm Applied Digital. First reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by the company, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) is set to invest $5 billion into Applied, a cryptomining firm pivoting to AI and HPC data centers.

Macquarie’s funds will help Applied Digital complete construction of an AI data centre in North Dakota, and potentially finance additional ones.

Shares of Applied Digital were trading sharply higher after the operator of artificial-intelligence data centers announced it would be receiving up to $5 billion from Macquarie Asset Management. Applied Digital stock gained 25% to $9.

Australia's Macquarie on Tuesday agreed to take a 15% stake in Applied Digital's high-performance computing business and invest up to $5 billion in the company's artificial intelligence data centers amid booming AI demand.

Investment bank Macquarie will invest up to US$5 billion in Applied Digital’s AI data centres and will take a 15 per cent stake in the company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday (Jan 14). Read more at The Business Times.

Shares of Applied Digital rose about 20% before the opening bell. Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, providers of computing infrastructure like Applied Digital have been seeing heavy investment from companies looking to train their own AI models and get ahead of competitors.

Key Takeaways Applied Digital shares surged in intraday trading Tuesday after announcing that Macquarie Asset Management is investing up to $5 billion in its high-performance computing data centers.Nvidia is already an investor in Applied Digital data centers and announced a stake in the company last year.