Already a subscriber?Macquarie’s chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake expects investments in data centres will drive huge returns for the asset manager, as the world’s biggest technology companies consume more information to feed artificial intelligence applications.
Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake opened the bank’s annual conference with a presentation on how AI development would require more data consumption.“Tech is driving another whole step-up in terms of AI, productivity and structural change for just about every industry … Initially, it is playing out within tech companies in the US.
Indeed, Macquarie and PSP Investments hold an 88 per cent stake in local data centre operator AirTrunk. Its mooted $15 billion-plus potential sale –Street Talk column – presents a mammoth payday for the asset manager, which bought into AirTrunk at a $3 billion valuation about four years ago. “This whole tech play, it is early stage with AI big tech companies, but it is going to play into all the markets.”