Data is the big-money game right now.
Private equity giant Blackstone Group is making a $300 million strategic investment into DDN, valuing the Chatsworth, California-based data storage company at $5 billion.
Founded in 1998, DDN — formerly called DataDirect Networks — helps companies store, analyze and manage data — a value commodity as more businesses look to create and train AI models.
The company plans to use the new cash to expand in industries ranging from healthcare to autonomous vehicles and accelerate product innovation, including for its AI data intelligence platform.
Big money
Of course this is far from the only play the Blackstone Group has made in the data sector. Last year it was reported the world’s largest asset manager plans to invest $8.2 billion to develop data centers in Spain. In 2023, it partnered with Digital Realty to develop $7 billion in data centers targeting providers of online content, cloud services and artificial intelligence.
Blackstone also is a backer of CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure startup that gives access to highly sought-after AI chips from Nvidia.
In general, datacenters and data storage and management have been hot among investors as businesses of all sizes try to use their data to scale up AI initiatives.
Late last year, AustralianSuper announced it has committed $1.5 billion to become a minority owner in DataBank, a provider of enterprise-class data centers across North America. Amazon has said it plans to invest $100 billion in AI data centers in the next decade, while OpenAI and Microsoft are planning a joint data center project that is expected to cost $100 billion.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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