Kuwait joins launch of $10bn AI infrastructure venture

Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) has joined the quartet led by US asset manager KKR to launch a new company to provide infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) hyperscalers.

The other partners in the $10 billion venture, called Helix Digital Infrastructure, are chip maker Nvidia and Vistra, a power generation company, KKR said in a statement.

Nvidia will advise Helix on designing and operating AI data centres to improve energy efficiency, lower costs and bring new computing capacity online more quickly, while Vistra will provide the required power.

Helix will be led by Adam Selipsky, former CEO of Amazon Web Services, while Waldemar Szlezak, KKR’s global head of digital infrastructure, will serve as chief investment officer.

The new venture will seek to invest in and manage assets critical to enabling AI, including hyperscale data centre development and operations, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and fibre and connectivity infrastructure.

KIA has more than $1 trillion in assets under management, according to Global SWF.

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In November, KIA became a co-investor in Brookfield Asset Management’s $10 billion AI infrastructure fund.

The Gulf sovereign wealth fund joined in June as an anchor investor in the $30 billion AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP) founded by Abu Dhabi’s MGX, BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and Microsoft.

KKR and US investment company Energy Capital Partners signed a $50 billion strategic partnership in October 2024 to accelerate the development of data centre, power generation and transmission infrastructure for AI and cloud computing.