AirTrunk, Asia Pacific's largest data center operator, has been acquired in a landmark $16.1 billion (AUD 24 billion) deal — the biggest buyout in Australia in 2024 and one of the largest tech acquisitions in the region's history. The Blackstone-led AirTrunk acquisition puts a spotlight on the company's founder, Robin Khuda, a Bangladeshi-Australian entrepreneur who built a global infrastructure powerhouse from the ground up.
The AirTrunk Blackstone Acquisition Deal
The transaction is led by Blackstone — the New York-based alternative investment giant — together with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). The two firms are buying AirTrunk from its existing shareholders, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) and PSP Investments. Upon closing, CPP Investments will hold a 12% stake in the company, subject to approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.
The $16.1 billion figure includes debt and committed capital expenditure for pipeline projects. For Blackstone, it is the largest single investment the firm has ever made in the Asia Pacific region, and it extends Blackstone's global data center portfolio — already worth more than $55 billion — even further into high-growth markets.
Robin Khuda: From Bangladesh to a $670 Million Fortune
Khuda was born in Bangladesh and moved to Sydney at the age of 18. He studied accounting at the University of Technology Sydney, then built deep expertise in telecommunications and cloud infrastructure, holding senior finance roles at Singtel and Fujitsu before serving as CFO of Pipe Networks and later co-founding NEXTDC, Australia's largest independent data center operator.
In 2015, Khuda founded AirTrunk in Sydney, using his own retirement savings to get the company off the ground. He secured AirTrunk's first contract to build a data center within a year of launch. By 2020, Macquarie Group's infrastructure arm had acquired an 88% stake in the company at a $3 billion valuation — a figure that has since grown more than fivefold.
With Khuda holding approximately 10% of AirTrunk, the Blackstone deal values his stake at up to $670 million, catapulting him into the ranks of Australia's wealthiest technology entrepreneurs.
Asia Pacific's Largest Data Center Platform
Founded in 2015, AirTrunk has grown into the largest data center group in the Asia Pacific region. It currently operates 11 facilities across Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, all designed to serve the hyperscale computing demands of major cloud providers and AI-driven workloads.
The acquisition underscores the accelerating global race to build data center capacity, driven by surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. For Blackstone, owning AirTrunk directly positions the firm at the center of that buildout across Asia Pacific's fastest-growing markets.
A Story of Immigrant Entrepreneurship
Khuda's journey — from a teenager arriving in Australia with little to his name, to the founder of a $16 billion enterprise — has become one of the most celebrated stories in Australian technology. He is widely credited with identifying the hyperscale data center opportunity in Australia before most rivals had recognized it, then executing relentlessly to build the infrastructure to meet it.
The AirTrunk Blackstone acquisition is both a validation of that vision and a signal that global capital is firmly committed to the Asia Pacific digital infrastructure story.
