Data Centers

Related Professionals

Overview

Kirkland is the clear leader for data center transactions for the entire investment lifecyle. They seamlessly work together and leverage in-depth market knowledge with a laser focus on providing commercial solutions. - Kirkland Client

Kirkland has industry leading experience handling the entire ecosystem of data center and adjacent industry transactions. Our attorneys have practiced in the industry since its inception, leading many of the foundational deals that have shaped its evolution. In the last five years alone, our lawyers have advised more than 140 unique sponsors and developers on over 450 data center transactions and are uniquely positioned to bring together leading and award-winning practice groups to create a holistic and integrated platform across all digital infrastructure asset classes and across all legal disciplines.

We partner with clients to develop unique products that push the market. Our digital infrastructure practice has been structured to reflect our clients’ needs, seamlessly integrating the experience of both real estate and infrastructure professionals.

Our global multidisciplinary team offers a comprehensive range of services essential to every phase of investing in, owning, developing, managing or operating data center and ancillary assets, including:

M&A/Private Equity

  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Equity Investments
  • Joint Ventures (YieldCos, DevCos, PowerCos)
  • Private Fund Formation, Continuation Funds and Secondary Transactions
  • Real Estate Acquisitions and Dispositions

Financing

  • Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) Financing
  • Bespoke Project Finance/Real Estate Finance Financing Arrangements (Development and Letter of Credit Facilities)
  • Corporate Debt Financing
  • Green Bonds and Sustainability-Linked Loans

Project Development

  • Construction Agreements
  • Data Center Leases and Service Agreements
  • Power Supply Agreements
  • Environmental Permitting

Sustainability

Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS)

Regulatory Filings & Compliance Programs

Technology & IP Transactions/IP Enforcement and Defense

Kirkland Represents AI Infrastructure Partnership, MGX and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners in Acquisition of 100% Equity in Aligned Data Centers
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Experience

Acquisition of Aligned Data Centers: A consortium including Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership, MGX and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, in its acquisition of Aligned Data Centers from private infrastructure funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management and its co-invest partners. The transaction will fuel the expansion of next-generation cloud and AI infrastructure and implies an Aligned enterprise value of approximately $40 billion. The acquisition of Aligned represents the largest data center transaction in recent history.

Blue Owl AI Data Center Joint Venture and Financing: Blue Owl on the closing of a $15 billion joint venture with Crusoe Energy Systems to fund the development of a 1.2-gigawatt AI data center campus comprised of eight buildings containing a total of 32 data halls and including 300 MW of on-site power generation, located in Abilene, Texas. The campus is 100% long-term leased to a Fortune 100 hyperscaler tenant. The project is financed with four separate real estate construction loans totaling $9.4 billion of proceeds.

Take-Private of CyrusOne: KKR, and an acquiring consortium including Global Infrastructure Partners, in the $15 billion acquisition of CyrusOne Inc., a data center REIT.

xScale Program Expansion Joint Venture: GIC in its $15 billion joint venture with Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) and CPP Investments to capitalize, acquire and develop a U.S. centric digital infrastructure platform. Driven by increasing artificial intelligence and cloud growth, the JV is intended to accelerate the Equinix xScale data center portfolio by purchasing land to build new state-of-the-art xScale facilities on multiple greater-than-100-megawatt campuses in the U.S.

CoreWeave Debt Financing: CoreWeave, the AI hyperscaler, in its $7.5 billion debt financing facility led by Blackstone, with participation from Magnetar (co-lead investor) and Coatue. Participation in the financing also included CDPQ, DigitalBridge Credit and BlackRock. The new financing will be used to further develop CoreWeave’s growing fleet of high-performance compute to execute existing contracts with leading enterprise customers and AI innovators.

Legal Advisory Trailblazer of the Year

TMT Finance USA Awards, 2025

Transaction of the Year: Digital Infrastructure Acquisition, North America

IJ Investor Americas Awards, 2024

Loan Deal of the Year: CyrusOne Take-Private Financing

IFLR Americas Awards, 2023

Practices