The “multi-billion dollar pipeline” powering data centres and the new economy

This interview was filmed 14th May, 2026.

The headline story from the AI revolution in terms of investments are often focused on the direct exposure to big tech names, taking the form of chip designers and manufacturers like Nvidia and TSMC or the firms deploying AI capabilities like Alphabet and Microsoft.

However, Ares Wealth Management Solutions Managing Director and Head of Australia and New Zealand Teiki Benveniste says the real opportunity lies in the underlying infrastructure that powers them.

“If you take a step back globally, some of the numbers that are being thrown out is that over the next 10-15 years, about US$106trn of investments for new infra builds will be required.”

In the interview above, Benveniste argues that the scale of demand means the clear strategy is deploying capital to developers building new energy capacity, preferring cash-flowing infrastructure over equity in potentially overvalued data centre assets, and finding the high-quality income hiding within the infrastructure space.

Why energy infrastructure is a “generational opportunity”

The numbers bear out what Benveniste called a “very broad opportunity set”. 

So, why is energy, specifically in the US, a key infrastructure play? 

“When you think about infrastructure 10 years ago, it was really about the movement of goods and people. It’s those harder, more traditional assets, maybe you could call them almost dirtier assets,” Benveniste says.

Today, however, digital assets that were previously more niche have evolved into foundational assets.

“Notably, yes, we're talking about data centres, but also the need for power generation, especially in developed countries is starting to really tick up and create, in our view, a generational opportunity into those infrastructure assets.”

“In the US over the next 10 years, you see a need for about US$2 trillion of investments to support the demand of additional power and also the power generation that comes offline during that time that needs to be replaced,” he explains.

“That represents about 500 gigawatts worth of power that needs to be built in the US.”

In percentage terms, this is a 60% increase, with roughly 40% of that coming from data centres.(1)

“You have developers that need to build that extra power, they need to build those additional wind farms, solar panel farms, gas powered stations,” Benveniste says.

On the Ares side, this strategy delivers core operating assets that deliver cash flow.

Understanding the value and the risks

The positives are increasingly seen as a monolith as private wealth investors have gained access to the asset class, but the risk-return profiles that investors can achieve differ considerably depending on the investment.

This, Benveniste explains, is akin to a private equity play in a company. The returns are going to come from capital appreciation more than income.

“Now you look at core infrastructure strategies and especially the Ares core infrastructure strategy, what you're doing is investing in hard assets that are in their operational phase. They’re generating those cash flows already.

“They’re generally contracted with high quality counterparties that are buying the service provided by this infrastructure, meaning that the cash flows are contracted over a long time with a quality counterparty.”

“We believe that the best way to avoid the risk of a single asset having a significant impact to your profile of returns on your portfolio is to diversify your portfolio across 40, 50 different assets so that if one asset comes offline, your total return or your portfolio return is not as impacted.”

Essential assets for an evolving economy

From digital networks and energy transition to transportation and utilities, the New Economy is becoming an essential building block of modern portfolios. Learn more about the forces shaping one of the fastest growing segments in private markets with your comprehensive guide to private infrastructure.