Brookfield merges Ori Industries into Radiant to build $100B sovereign AI infrastructure play
What's the deal? Brookfield Asset Management has launched RadiantDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company, by merging it with Ori Industries, a UK-based distributed AI cloud provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. Radiant is the first active investment from Brookfield's AI Infrastructure Fund (BAIIF), which has a direct pipeline to a $100 billion investment programme.
Radiant will build and operate AI factories — purpose-built compute facilities based on the Nvidia DSX reference design — serving sovereign governments, telecoms, and large enterprises under long-term contracts. Ori's software platform and team become the operating layer, while Brookfield supplies capital, powered land, and energy infrastructure.
Why now? The supply-demand imbalance in AI compute has been acute since large language models went mainstream in 2023. Sovereign governments increasingly require AI workloads to be processed within their borders, and US hyperscalers carry geopolitical and data residency complications that make them awkward partners for national AI programmes. Radiant is explicitly designed to fill that gap — financed at infrastructure-grade rates of around 5%, compared to the roughly 20% hurdle rates typical of venture-backed AI infrastructure.
Energy is another driver. AI compute is an energy problem as much as a hardware one, and Brookfield's existing portfolio includes power utilities and renewable generation assets. Radiant's model co-locates data centres directly with large-scale hydro, wind, solar, or nuclear generation — a structural cost advantage that most competitors cannot replicate.
What could go wrong? Radiant's contract model locks customers into full payment regardless of utilisation — a structure that protects Brookfield but requires winning and retaining investment-grade sovereign and enterprise counterparties in a competitive market. AI chip generations turn over quickly, and a $100 billion programme is easier to announce than to deploy.
Demand from sovereign customers is still maturing. National AI strategies vary widely in pace and ambition, and converting political intent into long-term compute contracts takes time. Execution in the first 18 months will be closely watched.
The signal: Radiant reflects a broader shift: AI infrastructure is becoming a distinct asset class, attracting long-duration capital that has historically gone into toll roads and power grids. Brookfield is betting that the economics of AI compute — predictable demand, long useful asset life, energy intensity — look more like infrastructure than technology.
If that framing takes hold, it will reshape how AI data centres are financed, built, and owned. The sovereign angle is equally significant: as AI becomes a geopolitical priority, nations that cannot afford to rely on US hyperscalers will need credible alternatives. Radiant is positioning itself as exactly that.
Sources:
TechEU
TechArena
Yahoo! Finance
Estadão Blue Studio
A.M.
