ByteDance's service provider is going to negotiate a major deal worth 30 billion yuan.

Investing in data centers today is like investing in railways in the 19th century. Whether you agree with this statement or not, investing in data centers is becoming the hottest business.

Last week, a relevant deal came to light. Bain Capital received a binding offer from Runze Technology. Runze Technology wants to acquire Bain Capital's assets in China of Chindata Group at a transaction price of $4.2 billion (approximately 30 billion RMB). Chindata Group is a data center operator with business covering China, India, and Malaysia. Runze Technology is a domestic data center operation giant with a market value of 100 billion. Both companies are data service providers for ByteDance.

Moreover, according to foreign media reports, Runze Technology is not the only one interested in the acquisition. Several A-share listed companies and state-owned assets in Beijing and Shanghai are also involved. The competition among multiple participants confirms the value of this 30-billion-yuan deal.

Touzhong Jiachuan found that in the investment market of held real estate, data centers are also becoming a favorite among top PE firms. Especially after 2021, relevant investments have been heating up. Many firms, including Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, CDH Investments, GLP China, Blackstone, and KKR, are all supporters in this field. Jonathan Gray, the executive vice president of Blackstone Group, even said that data centers are the infrastructure of AI, and it is one of the best investments we've ever made.

01.

A Giant with a Market Value of 100 Billion

To Negotiate a Big Deal with Bain Capital

It's not news that Bain Capital wants to sell Chindata Group. The relevant news spread like wildfire last March. In May this year, the market rumors became clearer. At that time, foreign media claimed that the potential transaction valuation might exceed $4 billion.

Last week, this news was confirmed. Bloomberg reported that Runze Technology, headquartered in Langfang, has submitted a binding offer to Bain Capital to acquire Chindata Group's assets in China, and the transaction valuation may reach $4.2 billion.

Friends familiar with the AI industry must not be unfamiliar with Chindata Group and Runze Technology.

In 2015, Ju Jing, an early participant in the construction of domestic data centers, founded Chindata Group, mainly providing data operation services for customers in the areas around the capital and the Yangtze River Delta. In April 2019, Bain Capital acquired a 44.6% stake in Chindata Group for $2 billion. In the same year, Chindata Group was merged with Bridge Data Centres established by Bain and renamed Chindata Group.

Driven by the founder Ju Jing and Bain Capital, Chindata Group went public on the NASDAQ on September 30, 2020, becoming the earliest domestic data company listed on the US stock market. In the following two years, there were changes in the management of Chindata Group. The founder Ju Jing left, and Bain Capital took the lead in the enterprise. In 2023, Bain Capital privatized Chindata Group at a total price of $3.2 billion.

When Bain Capital privatized it, Chindata Group already had 33 data centers. In 2022, its revenue reached 4.55 billion yuan, and the net profit was 652 million yuan. The company was in a stage of rapid development, with its revenue increasing by 60% year-on-year and the net profit increasing by 106%. Undoubtedly, Bain Capital was holding a valuable asset. However, due to the influence of geopolitics and other aspects, Bain has been looking for an opportunity to cash out and leave.

Runze Technology is the largest data center operator in China. It was established in 2009 and went public on the Growth Enterprise Market by backdooring Pulsun in 2022. Riding on the wave of AI in 2024, its stock price tripled, and it has now become an industrial giant with a market value of about 100 billion yuan.

It's worth mentioning that the largest customer of both Runze Technology and Chindata Group is ByteDance. Data from 2022 shows that ByteDance is the most important customer of Chindata Group, accounting for about 80% of its revenue. Runze Technology has been serving ByteDance since 2018. The company's 2024 financial report shows that ByteDance contributed 60% of the company's revenue. If Runze Technology successfully acquires Chindata Group, it will undoubtedly gain a huge advantage in strategic customers and regional networks and further consolidate its dominant position in the domestic market.

Of course, whether the above transaction can succeed is still unknown. After all, Runze Technology is not the only one participating in the acquisition. According to reports, Dongyangguang Co., Ltd. (with a market value of about 70 billion), which has a liquid - cooling business, the game company Youzu Networks (with a market value of about 16 billion), and state - owned institutions in Beijing and Shanghai are all interested in participating in the acquisition. It remains to be seen who will win in the end.

Although the final buyer of Chindata Group remains to be confirmed, investing in data centers has become a common trend. According to incomplete statistics from Touzhong Jiachuan, top PE institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, CDH Investments, and GLP China have already entered the field.

In late March last year, institutions such as Hillhouse Capital and Boyu Capital jointly invested $587 million in GDSI, a subsidiary of Global Data Center Group. This data center operation company, headquartered in Singapore and established in 2022, has extensive business in China and Southeast Asia.

In January this year, CDH completed the first - closing of a special investment fund worth 1 billion yuan (with a target scale of 2.5 billion yuan). This fund only invests in one direction, which is data centers. Moreover, this is not CDH's first special fund for data centers. As early as 2020, they raised 2 billion yuan to invest in this field. According to the disclosure of Touzhong.com in January this year, the first 2 - billion - yuan fund achieved a cash distribution of no less than 8% per year during the investment period. As of the end of last year, the DPI of the fund had reached 0.72, achieving excellent performance returns.

GLP China, a top - tier institution in real estate investment in the Asia - Pacific region, entered the data center investment field as early as 2018. So far, it has deployed 20 data centers in China, providing 1400 MW (megawatts) of IT load. In April this year, the GLP Data Center Income Fund (Phase I) worth 2.6 billion yuan was also successfully raised.

In addition, many local state - owned assets have also increased their investment in data centers. For example, Guiyang, a city that has achieved transformation and upgrading through the data industry, is one of the supporters. The 2 - billion - yuan Digital Economy Development Fund established by Guiyang has included data centers in its investment scope.

02.

More Aggressive Overseas Investment

Data Centers Drive the Rise of US GDP

Compared with the domestic market, the overseas market seems more aggressive in data center investment.

Waldemar Szlezak, the global head of digital infrastructure at KKR, wrote an article comparing data center investment to the large - scale railway construction in the 19th century. They predict that by 2030, the demand for data centers in the United States will nearly triple, requiring more than $1 trillion in investment. Blackstone looks at the global scale and predicts that about $2 trillion in global digital infrastructure investment will be needed by 2030. "This growth creates a generational investment opportunity in the data center field for us," said Ken Caplan, the global co - chief investment officer of Blackstone.

A report from Synergy Research Group shows that in 2024, the total amount of global data center asset mergers and acquisitions more than doubled, setting a record of $57 billion. The largest deal was made by Blackstone. Blackstone acquired AirTrunk, the largest data center platform in the Asia - Pacific region, for A$24 billion (approximately 110 billion RMB), breaking the global data center transaction record. Three years ago, Blackstone Group spent $10 billion to acquire the data center operator QTS, and now its valuation has reached $25 billion, becoming one of Blackstone's most successful investments.

In addition, AI giants have also joined hands with PE firms to invest. Meta recently finalized a data center financing plan worth up to $29 billion. The investment management company Pimco will be responsible for the $26 - billion debt financing part, and the alternative asset management company Blue Owl Capital will provide $3 billion in equity investment. This fund will be used to build a data center project in Louisiana.

Launched by OpenAI, "Stargate" has joined hands with giants such as SoftBank and Oracle to invest $500 billion to build more than 20 data centers in the United States, so as to ensure the global leading position of the US AI industry. $500 billion is approximately 3.6 trillion RMB, about equivalent to three Yajiang projects. Its scale is as grand as the "Manhattan Project" and "Star Wars" launched by the United States back then.

Moreover, the construction of data centers has become the main factor supporting the rise of US economic data. The chief economist of Apollo said that private consumption is usually the main driving force for US GDP growth, but in the first half of this year, the contribution of data center investment to US GDP growth was the same as that of consumer spending. Moreover, the contribution of consumer spending has been declining, while the contribution of data center construction has been rising.

This means that investing in data centers is not only about buying a hot asset but also a prelude to the global AI industry revolution for the giants.

References:

1. Dongshisi Tiao Capital, CDH Launched a Very "New" Fund, January 21, 2025

2. Green Grand Futures Research Institute, August 20, 2025

3. Bain is Said to Draw Chinese Bidders for $4 Billion Data Centers

This article is from the WeChat official account "Beyond the J - Curve", author: Yang Boyu, published by 36Kr with authorization.