Rising rates strain AI data center fundraising

A market selloff and higher borrowing costs are pushing AI infrastructure companies to delay fundraising or accept more expensive capital, Reuters reports. Listings for a Blackstone backed AirTrunk real estate investment trust, Nvidia backed Firmus Technologies and SoftBank backed SB Energy have been withdrawn or paused.

The changes follow weakness in AI related stocks and a decline in debt issued by CoreWeave toward distressed prices. Firmus had sought to raise $5 billion in Australia, but investors questioned its revenue projections and debt of about $30 billion.

Asian data center mergers and acquisitions reached $21.3 billion as of Tuesday, according to Dealogic, more than double the total for 2025. Debt financing also remained strong at $22.3 billion, while equity fundraising fell 4.6% from the same period last year to $5.4 billion.

Some large transactions are continuing. AirTrunk is nearing a sale of its Johor data center in Malaysia at a valuation of about $1 billion, while Bain Capital has received final bids for at least 40% of Bridge Data Centers in a deal that could value the company at about $5 billion.