NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - CyrusOne, a data center

operator owned by KKR and BlackRock's ( BLK ) Global

Infrastructure Partners, is preparing for an initial public

offering as early as 2027, in what could be one of the biggest

IPOs in the sector in recent years, according to people familiar

with the matter.

The private equity firms met investment banks including

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley last week and the banks pitched

for roles on the IPO, the people said, asking not to be

identified because the discussions are confidential.

The company has not decided how much it plans to raise or

what valuation it will seek, they said, but one of the people

said a public listing could raise about $5 billion. The people

cautioned that discussions are at an early stage and details are

subject to change.

BlackRock ( BLK ), KKR, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley declined to

comment. CyrusOne had no comment.

CyrusOne would join a growing pipeline of large IPOs tied to

data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure as

spending on computing capacity surges. Data center operator

Switch picked lead banks for a public offering that could value

the company at close to $80 billion including debt.

SoftBank-backed SB Energy is also preparing for a U.S. IPO that

could value it at more than $50 billion, while Brookfield-backed

data center provider Csquare ( CSQR ) raised more than $1

billion in its IPO last month.

KKR and GIP took CyrusOne private in 2022 in a deal valued

at about $15 billion including debt. An IPO could let them

monetize their investment and give CyrusOne more capital to pay

down debt it borrowed to expand its data centers.

CyrusOne operates more than 60 data center campuses across

the United States, Europe and Japan. The Information previously

reported that CyrusOne was preparing to interview banks.

Private equity and infrastructure investors have been

ramping up investment in data centers and related infrastructure

supporting the build-out.

KKR raised a record $19.2 billion for its latest infrastructure

fund this month and in June launched Helix Digital

Infrastructure, a new company with committed capital of more

than $10 billion to finance the build-out.