PitchBook News - Capitalizing on the digital revolution

Although the raised capital figures are lumpy year to year, they have trended higher over time, with an average of $103 billion raised by digital infrastructure-investing funds from 2021 to 2023, following an average of $89 billion from 2018 to 2020 and $53 billion from 2015 to 2017.

As the space has matured and investor appetite for direct and concentrated exposure to it has grown, specialist funds investing exclusively in the sector have popularized. Of the $800 billion in total commitments, $44 billion was committed to specialist vehicles, with 89% of that $44 billion raised from 2019 onward.

Specialist funds often have an informational advantage because they can prioritize staying ahead of developments in the telecom and datacenter industries and avoid spreading resources thin to keep apprised of all relevant information across multiple, largely unrelated investment sectors.

As datacenter technology has evolved and become more sophisticated, focused investment teams with deep industry expertise have thus become more valuable.

Those that were early and equipped to meet the need for AI-compatible datacenters stemming from the mainstream adoption of AI in the late 2010s and early 2020s have reaped the rewards, which has not gone unnoticed by the LPs looking to take advantage of the recent AI boom.

To read more, download our analyst note: Infrastructure Investors Capitalize on the Digital Revolution