(Reuters) -U.S. lender JPMorgan Chase and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are in talks to underwrite a $22 billion loan for a planned data center in Texas, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The campus will be developed by Vantage Data Centers, a digital infrastructure company owned by Silver Lake and DigitalBridge.
JPMorgan, MUFG, Vantage, Silver Lake and DigitalBridge did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Data centers have become prized assets, with banks and investment firms seeking to tap into the sector’s dealmaking opportunities.
Analysts expect the demand for data centers to climb alongside the boom in artificial intelligence, which relies heavily on such infrastructure.
A report from commercial real estate services firm JLL said data centers remain among the most favored real estate asset classes due to insatiable tenant demand, limited supply and rising rents, with its market capitalization up 161% between 2019 and 2025.
Silver Lake and DigitalBridge are committing $3 billion in combined equity to help build Vantage’s Texas campus, the report said.
The Lone Star State has emerged as a leading site for data center expansion, due to its relatively low electricity costs.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
