Brookfield & Qai Launch a $20 Billion AI Infrastructure Joint Venture

Brookfield and Qai, the artificial intelligence company owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, announced the formation of a $20 billion joint venture to develop AI infrastructure in Qatar and select international markets. The partnership aims to position Qatar as a leading AI hub in the Middle East, with plans to establish an integrated compute center that will expand regional access to high-performance computing capabilities.

The announcement follows the Qatar Investment Authority’s (QIA) launch of Qai as its new national AI entity, aligning Qatar with regional peers such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia in their efforts to build global AI hubs outside the U.S. and China. The initiative comes amid accelerating global investment in AI software and physical infrastructure, especially data centres required to support rapidly rising demand. A McKinsey report estimates that $5.2 trillion in data-centre investments will be needed by 2030 to meet global AI requirements.

Brookfield will participate through its recently launched Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, which aims to deploy up to $100 billion worldwide. In a separate interview with Reuters, Mohsin Pirzada, QIA’s head of funds, stated: “We’ve been investing in data centres since before it was in fashion.” He highlighted Qatar’s advantage as one of the world’s largest natural-gas producers, benefiting from rising power demand for data centres, and noted investments in fast-growing companies such as AI-driven analytics platform Databricks.

Commenting on concerns over rising valuations in the sector, Pirzada said there may be a potential “shakeout,” similar to the 1990s dot-com bubble, but one that would leave a handful of market leaders and create “a massive opportunity” for investors. He added: “We continue to invest into the technologies and the rail guards that will support this innovation, the bricks and mortar.”