Blue Owl Closes $7B Fund for Data Centers and Digital Infrastructure
Alternative investment manager has more than quadrupled its assets in the last four years
By Brian Pascus May 15, 2025 3:38 pm
reprints
Marc Zahr’s Blue Owl Capital is looking to further expand its investment footprint into data centers.
The firm, which has $67 billion in assets, announced Thursday that it closed Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure Fund III with $7 billion in capital commitments, exceeding its target fundraising amount by $3 billion.
The capital came from a diverse mix of sources across the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. that included public and private pensions, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, endowments and foundations, and family offices, according to Blue Owl.
The firm said in a statement that it plans to use the capital to fuel the acquisition and development of data centers and other digital real estate assets connected to AI technology and cloud computing — particularly larger, build-to-suit developments across the U.S.
The private equity firm’s digital infrastructure vertical already holds roughly $15 billion in assets.
In a statement, Zahr said that his firm believes “massive capital commitments” are required to support the infrastructure of data centers going forward and that this new fund is positioned to benefit from “the favorable tailwinds” behind digital infrastructure.
Hyperscalers like Apple, Meta, Google, Oracle and Chat GPT depend on data centers and cloud-computing centers to run nearly every element of their businesses.
“We continue to see a generational market opportunity in data centers and digital infrastructure more broadly,” added Zahr.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Blue Owl’s real assets platform focused mainly on triple-net-leases and held $12 billion of assets under management. But, by 2025, as the firm added digital infrastructure and a $15 billion private credit business to its portfolio, Blue Owl’s real assets platform reached $67 billion.
Nor is this the first large fundraise for Blue Owl: The firm announced in September that it raised $5.3 billion for its Blue Owl Real Estate Fund VI.
Matt A’Hearn, head of Blue Owl’s digital infrastructure division, described the Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure Fund III as “one of the largest data center-focused funds in the industry.”
“With rising capital needs, staying relevant means having the financial strength to build and own critical digital infrastructure along with maintaining an experienced global team focused on meeting the needs of our partners,” said A’Hearn.
Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com
