Citi forms AI Infrastructure Banking team to tap $3t financing opportunity

The team aims to provide debt financing to fund data centres and other infra capacity.

Citi has formed an AI Infrastructure Banking team to tap opportunities in the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure space.

The team will collaborate across sectors such as technology, communications, energy & power, real estate, and crypto, the bank said in a press release. It will evaluate “all pockets of capital available” to provide the debt financing needed for AI-related projects.

An estimated $3t investment is needed by 2030 to fund data center and other infrastructure capacity, Citi’s leadership noted in an announcement of the new team’s formation.

Investment banking (IB) coverage will be led by Ric Spencer, vice chair of technology, and Ashish Agarwal, co-head of real-estate. Agarwal and Spencer will have accountability for driving cross-sector coverage of all AI Infrastructure related opportunities, Citi said.

The two will work with Raimund Riedl, who leads data centre coverage within media and communications; Sirisha Kadamalakalva and Anand Govind, who led AI coverage within technology; and Joao Sousa within real estate.

M&A coverage will be led by Ben Mortimer, whilst Alex Watkins, head of technology financing, will lead financing coverage, including debt capital markets (DCM) and equity capital markets (ECM).

Corporate banking coverage will be led by Doug Baird, head of technology. Baird will focus on capital allocation and credit, as well as overall relationship management and cross sell.