KKR and Oak Hill Pump $1.9B Into European AI Data Center Expansion

KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that it is making an additional $1.5 billion equity commitment to Global Technical Realty ("GTR"), a multi-billion dollar European built-to-suit data center platform. In connection with this investment, Oak Hill Capital ("Oak Hill"), a thematic, middle-market private equity firm, will join as an investor in the company, committing approximately $400 million.

Founded by leading data center entrepreneur Franek Sodzawiczny and KKR, GTR has grown into one of Europe's premier developers and operators of mission-critical data center capacity. Since the launch of the platform in 2020, GTR has established a strong footprint across both primary and emerging high-growth markets, delivering innovative data centers designed to meet the requirements of hyperscale, cloud and AI-driven workloads, supported by a team drawn from some of the industry's most experienced participants.

The new commitments from KKR and Oak Hill will support GTR's substantial development pipeline, including additional greenfield capacity and new market entries across Europe to meet rising demand for high-performance and power-dense compute and cloud infrastructure. With a growing operating team and multiple projects already in execution, GTR is positioned to scale rapidly across Europe as demand for AI-ready data center capacity continues to accelerate.

"As rapid cloud growth continues and scaled AI demand begins to materialize, the need for high-quality, power-efficient, and scalable data center infrastructure in Europe has never been greater," said Andrew Peisch, Partner at KKR. "GTR has established itself as one of Europe's most capable developers of next-generation facilities, and we are thrilled to deepen our commitment to the platform while expanding our long-standing relationship with Oak Hill."

"We are pleased to invest in GTR and collaborate with KKR to support a platform that sits at the intersection of cloud, AI, and critical infrastructure," said Adam Hahn, Partner at Oak Hill. "GTR has built a differentiated platform with a strong management team, and we look forward to supporting the company as it continues to scale to meet the growing digital infrastructure needs across Europe."

Franek Sodzawiczny, CEO and founder of GTR, added: "This investment marks a major inflection point for GTR. Demand from hyperscale and AI-driven customers across Europe continues to accelerate, and this capital enables us to scale our team, deepen our operating capabilities, and move faster into new markets. KKR has been an exceptional strategic partner since our inception, and their renewed commitment positions us to execute against a substantial development pipeline. We are also delighted to welcome Oak Hill, whose deep experience in digital infrastructure and telecommunications will be invaluable as we scale the platform for its next phase of growth."

KKR is funding its investment primarily from its Global Infrastructure Strategy. The firm has committed approximately $34 billion of equity into digital infrastructure across 24 investments, alongside more than $20 billion in power and renewables. KKR's portfolio includes five data center platforms across the U.S., APAC, and EMEA totaling more than 155 facilities and a 12-gigawatt development pipeline, twelve fiber platforms reaching nearly 30 million homes, and over 130,000 wireless infrastructure sites across Europe and APAC.

Oak Hill and its predecessors have been investing in digital infrastructure for over 30 years, with 30 investments to date. The investment in GTR marks the firm's fourth platform investment in the data center space and draws on Oak Hill's deep experience in scaling digital infrastructure businesses.