MADRID, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Spain's ACS is close

to striking a 23 billion euro ($26.8 billion) partnership with

BlackRock's ( BLK ) Global Infrastructure Partners to develop

data centres, newspaper Expansion reported on Thursday, citing

unnamed market sources.

Under this agreement, the U.S. asset manager GIP is set to

take a 50% stake in the ACS Digital & Energy unit, Expansion

said, consisting of 5 billion euros in equity capital - to be

contributed progressively - and 18 billion euros in debt.

ACS declined to comment and neither GIP nor BlackRock ( BLK )

immediately responded to Reuters' requests for comment.

The report comes as surging demand for AI computing and

limited power capacity is driving valuations for digital

infrastructure to record levels.

ACS had targeted its data centre business to reach a

valuation of between 3 billion and 5 billion euros by 2030. The

reported partnership with GIP would price it at the high end of

that range.

The Spanish construction company is set to update its data

centre strategy at an investor day on Friday.

GIP, which manages more than $180 billion in assets

globally, last month participated in the $40 billion acquisition

of U.S. data centre firm Aligned along with Microsoft ( MSFT ) and

Nvidia ( NVDA ).

Major tech companies are on track to spend $400 billion on

AI infrastructure this year, according to Morgan Stanley

estimates.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)