As AI companies race to build powerful models, another competition is unfolding behind the scenes—not over software, but over the infrastructure required to power it.
That shift was on display this week when Blue Owl Capital (NYSE:OWL) launched a new U.S. digital infrastructure venture designed to capitalize on surging data center demand.
The move reflects a broader bet across private markets that the biggest winners of the AI boom may not be the companies building the next-frontier model, but the investors who own the infrastructure that every AI developer depends on.
In an interview with CNBC, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that the rising cost of AI infrastructure remains one of the industry's biggest challenges.
"It's definitely a headwind.
