Abu Dhabi’s ADQ and US-based Energy Capital Partners (ECP) have announced a $25 billion joint venture to develop power generation and energy infrastructure, aiming to support the growing electricity demands of data centres and energy-intensive industries.
The 50:50 partnership will focus primarily on the US market, with potential investments in select international regions. The companies plan to invest over US$25 billion across 25 gigawatts (GW) of power generation projects, beginning with an initial $5 billion capital commitment. The initiative will prioritize greenfield developments, new builds, and expansions to ensure a stable power supply for hyperscale cloud computing and industrial electrification.
Meeting AI-driven electricity demand
Global electricity consumption is expected to rise at an unprecedented rate, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and high-density data centres. According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centre power demand has tripled over the past decade and could double or triple again by 2028.
Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Managing Director and Group CEO of ADQ, highlighted the significance of AI’s impact on power infrastructure.
“The acceleration of AI and its societal adoption presents attractive opportunities to serve the power and infrastructure needs of data centres and hyperscalers. Our partnership with ECP allows us to invest meaningfully in generation and related infrastructure assets that support accelerating demand for power, promoting the progress of these industries and helping to future-proof economies.”
Doug Kimmelman, Founder and Executive Chairman of ECP, emphasized the necessity of new energy projects to sustain AI-driven expansion.
“AI will be a major driver of US economic and job growth over the coming decade, but not unless ample new electricity supplies are developed. Our focus in this partnership will primarily be on new-build natural gas-fired power generation assets at scale to meet the needs of hyperscalers on a timely basis.”
A strategic partnership for long-term energy investment
ADQ, which manages over $225 billion in assets, has made infrastructure investments a core focus, spanning energy, utilities, healthcare, and logistics. ECP, established in 2005, has owned, controlled, and operated more than 83GW of power generation across the US, covering natural gas, geothermal, hydro, solar, wind, battery storage, and waste-to-energy projects.
This partnership marks ADQ’s latest push into AI-driven energy demand and reflects ECP’s continued expansion in the data centre power sector, following its previous $50 billion partnership with KKR for similar infrastructure projects.
