BlackChamber raises $2bn to expand hyperscale data centre platform

BlackChamber, a US-based real estate investment firm specialising in digital infrastructure, has raised around $2 billion for its latest fund and related investment vehicles. The capital is earmarked for the expansion of hyperscale data centre campuses across the US.

The fundraising includes $830 million in primary commitments to BlackChamber Real Estate Opportunity Fund II and an additional $1.3 billion in sidecar capital. The capital will support the development of powered-shell campuses in key data centre markets.

Investors in the fund include a mix of global sovereign wealth funds, public and private pensions, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, and family offices. Their identities have not been publicly disclosed.

The fund was oversubscribed, exceeding its $1 billion target and hard cap. Hodes Weill Securities acted as the exclusive financial adviser and global placement agent.

In parallel with the fundraising, BlackChamber secured over $1.2 billion in construction financing to develop four hyperscale data centre campuses in Northern Virginia, delivering more than 740 megawatts of total capacity. The projects are part of a broader 1.5-gigawatt, 557,000 sq m development pipeline in the region.

JLL, the global commercial real estate services firm, acted as a financing adviser on the construction loans.

“Against a dynamic and challenging market backdrop, JLL leveraged their relationships, creativity, and expertise to drive seamless and unrelenting execution with a variety of different lenders, ultimately delivering value-accretive and strategically beneficial financing solutions,” said Conley Patton, managing partner of BlackChamber.

Drake Greer, senior director at JLL and a member of the firm’s national data centre capital markets team, said: “What was once a small alternative segment of the commercial real estate industry is now a large segment of equity and debt deployments. BlackChamber’s recent construction loan closings are evidence of the diverse capital chasing data centres.

“Our recent closings include capital from bank balance sheets, both commercial real estate and infrastructure verticals, but also private credit vehicles funded with insurance company capital.”

Founded in 2019, BlackChamber focuses on build-to-suit powered-shell campuses designed for hyperscale clients. Its leadership includes former executives from Meta, JLL, COPT, Credit Suisse and Whiting-Turner.

Analysis: The US data centre sector is drawing increasing institutional investment from the UK and Europe, driven by surging demand for digital infrastructure and the asset class’s combination of stable income and essential utility. As of early 2024, the United States hosted 5,426 data centres, accounting for around 46% of the global total, according to Cloudscene, an Australia-based data centre directory and analytics platform.

The US data centre market is projected to grow from 20.39 gigawatts in 2025 to 26.12 gigawatts by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 5.08%, according to Mordor Intelligence, a market research firm headquartered in Hyderabad, India. This growth is underpinned by continued expansion in cloud computing, enterprise digital transformation, and rising demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Institutional investors accounted for the largest share of buyer activity in US data centre transactions in 2023, overtaking corporate and private equity buyers, according to Avison Young, a commercial real estate services firm based in Toronto. Investors are drawn by long leases, inflation-linked rental streams, and tenants, including hyperscale cloud and AI providers.

Data from CBRE shows that primary US data centre markets saw 2.3 gigawatts of net absorption in 2023 — a 70% year-on-year increase — with vacancy rates below 5% in Northern Virginia, Dallas, and Silicon Valley.

Despite a growing development pipeline, power constraints and limited land availability are restricting supply, helping to support strong pricing. The rise of generative AI, which requires dense computing power and high energy availability, is accelerating capacity demand, further reinforcing the sector’s appeal to long-term capital.

Investors from the UK, continental Europe, and the Middle East are increasing allocations to the US data centre sector, citing its market scale, regulatory stability, and greater depth compared to Europe’s fragmented landscape. Recent mandates include commitments from sovereign wealth funds, insurers, and pension schemes into US-focused data centre platforms and real estate strategies.

As demand for digital services expands, data centres are becoming core components of institutional real estate and infrastructure portfolios. The sector offers a rare combination of contracted income and exposure to structural technology-driven growth.