Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner: There's a lot of tailwinds for this economy

Data Center Market & Investment - An investor group including Black Rock, Nvidia, XAI, and Microsoft has agreed to acquire Align data centers for approximately $40 billion [1] - The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026 [1] - Aligned operates and has planned capacity of more than 5 gigawatts across 50 data centers [1] - The compute buildout is described as 10 times the scale of the Manhattan Project, but is entirely privately funded [1] Economic Tailwinds - The compute buildout is considered a significant stimulus for the economy heading into 2026 [1] - Re-industrialization investment is massive, with trillions of dollars coming from the Middle East and $550 billion from Japan [1] - Deregulation and an M&A wave are expected to further boost the economy [1] AI & Compute Constraints - Compute capacity is expected to be constrained for the next several years, according to multiple industry leaders [2] - Continued investment along the compute spectrum is recommended [2] - Microsoft and SoftBank are seen as potential beneficiaries of the AI buildout, due to their investments in OpenAI [2][3][5]