Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray expects artificial intelligence demand to prompt more equity fundraising worldwide, Reuters reported in an account carried by CNA, as the industry grows.
Gray also expects most major technology companies to raise more capital, according to the report. It named no companies or fundraising totals, gave no schedule and did not specify whether the money would come through public offerings, private placements or another form of equity financing.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) program lists Gray, in his role as Blackstone's president and COO, for a public-and-private-markets panel at the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit. The event runs Nov. 2-4 and was expected to bring together about 280 financial leaders, including around 120 group chairpersons and CEOs.
The HKMA program linked investment interest to AI's operating base, naming electricity networks, computing equipment and data systems among areas attracting capital. It also put capital spending and potential investment risks on the summit agenda. A separate 'War for compute' session was scheduled for Nov. 3 to examine expanding computing capacity and its spending cycle.
Separately, on Oct. 26, Bank of America, Blackstone, Citi and Morgan Stanley announced a $63 billion financing structure for Broadcom XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions to be leased to Anthropic. Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley were to arrange first-lien financing, while Blackstone committed to second-lien financing; the announcement did not disclose Blackstone's commitment amount. Further details appeared in an earlier report on the Anthropic compute financing.
The HKMA schedule lists 'Investing in the AI Economy' for 9:45 p.m. ET Nov. 3 (2:45 a.m. UTC Nov. 4).
