I Squared bets on AI inference with $225 million data centre buy from Cogent

Investment manager I Squared Capital on Tuesday said that it has bought 10 data centre facilities from Cogent Fiber for $225 million in cash, marking its latest bet on AI infrastructure.

I Squared said it plans to use the assets ‌as ⁠a “seed” for ⁠a new US data centre operating platform, committing a further $1 ​billion for upgrades, expansions and acquisitions.

The deal, spanning nine locations, underscores the shift from large, centralised data centres used for model training to those deployed closer to end-users for AI inference.