A new AI giant? Blackstone, Google join forces to build TPU Cloud

The company will give customers another option to access cloud TPUs in addition to using them through Google Cloud.

Google’s TPUs are custom chips purpose-built for AI, and optimised for training and inference of advanced AI models.

They have been developed and deployed in production for more than a decade and power workloads for many of the world’s top AI labs, capital market firms, and companies running the most complex high-performance computing applications. TPUs also power Gemini and the AI-driven products Google delivers to billions of users globally.

Blackstone is the world’s biggest alternative asset manager, with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management, and the largest global provider of data centers. The joint venture between Blackstone and Google is intended to give customers even more choice and flexibility for running their AI workloads on TPUs.

Under the terms of the partnership, Blackstone is making an initial commitment of $5 billion in equity capital from funds managed by Blackstone.

The company expects to bring the first 500 MW of capacity online in 2027, with plans to scale significantly over time.

Google will supply hardware, including TPUs, as well as software and services to the new company so it can rapidly accelerate to meet the growing demand for accelerated computing, leveraging the benefit of Google’s technical and domain expertise.

Blackstone has named Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a Google executive with over two decades of experience building and operating Google’s global infrastructure and operations, to lead the new company as CEO.

Jon Gray, President and COO of Blackstone, said: “We see a generational opportunity to invest capital at scale building AI infrastructure. This new company has enormous potential as it helps to meet the unprecedented demand for compute. We are incredibly proud to partner with Google – bringing together their world class TPUs and AI capabilities with Blackstone’s exceptional strength in energy and digital infrastructure.”

Jas Khaira, Head of Blackstone N1 (BXN1), said: “Capital alone doesn’t build category-defining platforms – the right partner, the right structure, and the conviction to underwrite singular opportunities do. Google’s TPUs, a decade in the making and foundational to the AI economy, are exactly the kind of platform BXN1 was built to back.”

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said: “This joint venture with Blackstone helps meet growing demand for TPUs, which are optimized specifically for efficiency and performance in the AI era. Together, we’re accelerating AI transformation and providing more options for organizations to access accelerated compute capability.”