📝 The AGM Q&A with Blue Owl's Head of Digital Infrastructure Matt A'Hearn - Building the backbone of the digital economy
Conversations with private markets leaders
Blue Owl is one of the industry’s largest alternative asset managers and has charted an impressive growth path in the nine years since its founding. Blue Owl has scaled to over $260B of AUM and it has proven to be one of the top firms at raising capital from the wealth channel.
In October 2024, Blue Owl acquired IPI Partners to expand the firm’s footprint in digital infrastructure as part of the firm’s Real Estate platform. At the time of acquisition, IPI, which was founded in 2016 as a joint venture between ICONIQ and Iron Point to service the needs of large, high-quality hyperscale and enterprise datacenter users, had ~$10.5B AUM. IPI was one of the largest private US-based data center investors with a portfolio of 82 data centers that comprised over 2.2GWs of leased capacity across the US, EMEA, and APAC. Data center tenants are mainly investment grade corporations, including Fortune 100 companies.
IPI was co-founded by Matt A’Hearn, who became Head of Blue Owl’s Digital Infrastructure strategy.
As artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and global digitization reshape the economy, the infrastructure powering this transformation is emerging as one of the most compelling investment themes of our time.
In this edition of the AGM Q&A, we had the chance to sit down with Blue Owl Senior MD, Head of Digital Infrastructure Matt A’Hearn, a digital infrastructure investing veteran.
Matt’s career has mirrored the evolution of digital infrastructure itself — from early investments in fiber and towers to leading the charge in hyperscale data center development. In this wide-ranging conversation, Matt shares how Blue Owl is helping hyperscalers solve their most pressing infrastructure challenges, why scale is a competitive moat, and how digital infrastructure is becoming an increasingly popular allocation for private wealth investors.
Prior to joining Blue Owl, Matt was the Managing Partner and a Founder of IPI Partners, the predecessor firm to Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure. Prior to founding IPI, Matt led the global investment banking practice in communications infrastructure at Moelis & Company.
Please enjoy this Q&A with Matt, who has a wealth of knowledge and perspectives on private markets and digital infrastructure, and has played an integral role in financing many of the industry’s largest data center deals, including the recent $30B Richland Parish data center transaction with Meta in Louisiana.
Building the backbone of the digital economy
A conversation with Matt A’Hearn, Senior Managing Director, Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure
Q: Your career seems to track the evolution of digital infrastructure. How did you get started?
A: It’s been a winding path. I started on the TMT side — technology, media, telecom — and moved into towers, fiber, and ultimately data centers. When we launched IPI in 2016, we saw a clear gap: some of the hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon needed infrastructure partners who could move at their speed and scale. They weren’t just looking for capital — they needed someone who understood their business and could deliver with precision.
Q: What did the opportunity in data centers look like back then?
A: Cloud was growing fast, but data centers were still viewed as competitive to cloud. We approached the opportunity differently — aligning with cloud-native growth from the outset. We were cloud-native from day one and saw hyperscaler growth as a tailwind for our business. Our goal was to be a true collaborator — solving infrastructure challenges and scaling alongside them.
Q: You’ve called AI a “wave on top of a wave.” What does that mean?
A: Cloud was already growing 20–30% annually [1]. AI has added a new layer of demand on top of existing cloud growth. We see AI as incremental growth layered on top of cloud — a potential generational opportunity. But this isn’t just an AI story. It’s about the entire digital infrastructure ecosystem: compute, storage, fiber, power, and connectivity.
Q: Let’s talk about the supply-demand dynamics. What’s driving the urgency?
A: Demand is accelerating meaningfully, driven by AI and cloud adoption. AI and cloud require massive compute power — GPUs, TPUs, CPUs — all housed in data centers. For every dollar we invest in a build, our partners typically invest $3–$5 in their own equipment. On the supply side, power is the biggest constraint. You need sites, skilled labor, water, and most critically, power. Transmission and generation challenges are slowing things down, and solving for that is a key part of our underwriting.
Q: How does Blue Owl approach site selection and power strategy?
A: It’s all about having a strong ground game. We’ve built a team with deep expertise in site acquisition, power procurement, and stakeholder engagement. Gone are the days of buying a piece of land and assuming the utility will deliver power. You need to know if it’s coming in three years or ten. That’s why we go in with full visibility — aiming to avoid the losers and find the winners.
Q: What role does scale play in this business?
A: Scale plays a critical role in meeting hyperscaler needs. The size of projects has grown from 24-megawatt data centers to multi-gigawatt campuses. A gigawatt is roughly the power consumption of San Francisco. Hyperscalers are looking for partners who can deliver at that level — globally. That’s where our capital base and footprint become real differentiators.
Q: How do you think about underwriting these investments?
A: We’re underwriting mission-critical infrastructure. If hyperscalers don’t have data centers, they don’t have a cloud or AI business. Our investments are typically structured to prioritize senior positioning in the capital stack, reflecting the mission-critical nature of the infrastructure. These are long-term leases with high-credit tenants. It’s infrastructure with tech-like potential growth.
Q: What’s the investment case for private wealth investors?
A: Digital infrastructure can potentially offer long-term income, inflation protection, and low correlation to traditional markets. It’s a way to play the AI and cloud themes without picking winners. And with the rise of evergreen structures and lower minimums, it’s now becoming accessible to individual investors. That’s why we see it as a natural fit for the wealth channel.
Q: How did the Blue Owl acquisition change the game?
A: It was about expanding our toolbox. Hyperscalers were asking for more — lending solutions, structured capital, permanent vehicles. Blue Owl had the platform, the culture, and the track record. Joining forces allowed us to scale with our partners and serve both institutional and wealth investors side by side.
Q: What excites you most about the future of digital infrastructure?
A: The use cases are expanding. It’s not just the big five anymore — we’re seeing a broader universe of companies with massive infrastructure needs. AI is accelerating that, and data is becoming more valuable than ever. Whether it’s hyperscalers or niche players, the demand for capacity is only going up. We believe we’re contributing to the foundational infrastructure of the digital economy — with significant runway ahead.
A number of the themes discussed by Matt appear in Blue Owl’s paper on digital infrastructure, Capturing Growth with Digital Infrastructure, a conversation between Matt and Blue Owl’s President & CEO of Global Private Wealth, Sean Connor.
Endnotes
[1] Source: RBC Datacenter Download (June 2025); McKinsey: The Cost of Compute: A $7 Trillion Race to Scale Data Centers (April 2025).
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