(HedgeCo.Net) Brookfield Asset Management is taking its AI infrastructure ambitions global, unveiling a new $20 billion joint venture with Qatar’s Qai to build and operate next-generation digital infrastructure around the world. The JV will focus on high-performance data-centers, energy supply and related assets that serve AI workloads, marking one of the most ambitious partnerships yet between a Western alternatives giant and a Gulf sovereign investor. Connect Money+1

The venture is a cornerstone of Brookfield’s recently announced Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Program, which aims to mobilize up to $100 billion in investment across energy, land, data-center facilities and compute capacity. That program is anchored by the new Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, targeting $10 billion of equity commitments and backed by major investors including Nvidia and Kuwait Investment Authority. Reuters+2Investing.com+2

Under the agreement, Brookfield and Qai plan to co-develop large-scale campuses in Qatar and other strategic markets, harnessing the Gulf state’s abundant natural gas resources and geographic position between Europe, Asia and Africa. The partners are emphasizing energy efficiency, low-carbon power and advanced cooling technologies as hyperscale cloud and AI operators seek both capacity and sustainability. Connect Money+1

For Brookfield, the deal leverages its existing strengths in infrastructure, renewable power and real assets. The firm has already built a sizeable global datacenter footprint, and it sees AI as a once-in-a-generation demand shock that will reshape electricity, real estate and communications networks. Record fundraising in recent quarters — including $30 billion raised in a single quarter this year — gives the manager ample dry powder to deploy into this theme. Brookfield Asset Management (BAM)+1

For Qatar, partnering with Brookfield is part of a broader race among Gulf states to position themselves as AI hubs, following multi-billion-dollar initiatives in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. By combining sovereign capital, cheap energy and regulatory flexibility with Brookfield’s operating expertise, Qai is seeking to fast-track its emergence as a global player in the datacenter and AI-compute supply chain. Semafor+1

Against that geopolitical backdrop, institutional investors watching Brookfield’s moves see more than just another infrastructure strategy. The AI infrastructure program — and today’s $20 billion JV — are becoming a barometer of how alternative investment firms intend to monetize the AI boom, not through speculative equity in model developers, but via the picks-and-shovels assets that will underpin the entire ecosystem.