Carlyle is selling Copia Power, the data centre power and infrastructure platform it built from scratch five years ago, to Swedish investment group EQT.

The sale sees EQT’s Infrastructure VII fund acquire Copia from the US-listed alternative asset manager in a transaction reported to deliver Carlyle more than five times its original investment. Terms were not disclosed, though people close to the deal have valued the platform at around $2.6 billion.

Founded in 2021, Copia has grown from a standing start into a business with more than 2.6GW of energy generation and storage assets already in operation or under construction. The company now has over 9GW of grid-connected data centre capacity in development, sitting alongside a broader pipeline that includes more than 25GW of solar and storage projects and around 7GW of natural gas generation. It employs roughly 100 people.

What sets Copia apart, and what appears to have attracted EQT, is its model of co-locating power generation, high-voltage transmission and data centre load at a single interconnection point. Rather than a developer queuing for grid capacity and hoping a utility can keep pace, Copia builds the generation and the compute campus together, offering utilities a faster route to add both supply and demand to the grid at once.

A deal built around the power bottleneck

The transaction lands at a moment when energy availability, not chip supply or construction capacity, has become the single biggest constraint on new data centre development. Interconnection queues in several US markets now stretch years rather than months, and hyperscalers are increasingly willing to pay a premium for sites that come with power already secured.

Ray Henger, chief executive of Copia Power, said the deal marked the beginning of a new chapter for the business. “We are excited to partner with EQT as we enter Copia’s next phase of growth,” he said.

“Since our founding, we have focused on solving one of the most important challenges facing the US power market: bringing generation, transmission and large-scale load together in a way that accelerates delivery for customers and utilities. EQT’s deep infrastructure experience and long-term perspective bring the ideal partner as we continue to scale our platform and develop the energy infrastructure needed to support AI and electrification.”

Alex Darden, partner and head of EQT Infrastructure Americas, framed the acquisition as a natural extension of the firm’s existing digital infrastructure holdings. “The rapid adoption of AI is transforming infrastructure demand, making energy an increasingly critical enabler of digital infrastructure,” he said.

“Copia has built a differentiated platform at the intersection of these two themes, and we believe it is exceptionally well positioned for long-term growth. We look forward to partnering with the management team to accelerate development, scale the platform, and help build the infrastructure that will support the next generation of AI.”

Slotting into a wider EQT power and connectivity play

The acquisition is not a standalone move for EQT. The firm already controls EdgeConneX, one of the largest data centre platforms globally, alongside fibre operator Zayo, renewables developer Cypress Creek Energy and connectivity business Scale. EQT has said it intends to encourage collaboration between Copia and this existing portfolio, pairing power generation directly with digital infrastructure and connectivity for hyperscale customers.

That strategy mirrors a pattern playing out across the sector, in which private capital increasingly treats energy and compute as a single asset class rather than separate investments. Capacity has tracked this convergence closely in recent months, from the financing arrangements supporting large AI infrastructure builds to the growing role of gas and renewables developers in powering new campuses, as well as the mounting community and regulatory pushback against data centre expansion in parts of the United States tracked through its Moratorium Monitor coverage.

EQT’s own build-out of EdgeConneX has followed a similar trajectory. Since acquiring the business in 2020, EQT has more than tripled its capacity, and the platform now spans more than 80 sites across over 50 markets, with executives repeatedly citing power as the defining constraint on further growth. The addition of Copia gives EQT a route to originate power supply directly rather than relying solely on third-party utilities and independent power producers.

The Copia deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals. For Carlyle, the exit adds to a run of recent digital infrastructure disposals and comes as the firm continues to reshape its portfolio around AI-adjacent themes, having also been exploring a sale of its stake in Indian data centre operator Nxtra earlier this year.