STOCKS | KKR’s $10 Billion Data Center Venture Completes First Core Executive Hires

KKR’s $10 billion AI infrastructure venture Helix Digital Infrastructure has completed its first two core executive hires after former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky took over as CEO. According to Sina Finance, the project’s investors include Nvidia. People familiar with the matter said Jonathan Lin, former chief commercial officer at data center operator Equinix, will oversee data center strategy and execution, while Kleber Costa, former chief commercial officer of AES’s clean energy business, will handle Helix’s power and energy operations. The two executives started this week as executive vice presidents and report directly to Selipsky, who led AWS until mid-2024. Helix was set up by KKR earlier this year to invest in and develop computing infrastructure for large AI cloud customers. Its main investors also include Vistra Energy and the Kuwait Investment Authority. Helix said it aims to serve as a one-stop contact point for large cloud providers and may acquire stalled projects in some cases to expand faster. As of the end of June, the firm had drawn up a shortlist of acquisition targets. People familiar with the matter said Lin oversaw more than $30 billion of data center development spending at Equinix and took part in more than $10 billion of M&A transactions. Equinix and AES both have deep ties to major cloud companies, resources Helix needs for expansion. AES has signed multi-gigawatt power agreements with Amazon, Microsoft and Google, including a 20-year power purchase agreement announced in February for a new data center in Texas with Google. AES is nearing privatization, after an investor consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners, a BlackRock unit, and EQT announced in March that it would buy AES for $10.7 billion. The deal is expected to close between later this year and early 2027. On September 1, Costa said on LinkedIn that he helped expand AES’s U.S. clean energy business fivefold and that its operating and under-construction renewable energy, storage and natural gas projects surpassed 20 gigawatts.