Thanks to the demand for infrastructure projects, investment giants Brookfield Asset Management on the way to breaking the fundraising record this year, it has hauled $25 billion in funding in the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to $123 billion.
In the past year, the company, which has more than $1 trillion in assets under management, has raised or received commitments of about $50 billion in infrastructure funds and another $8 billion in debt funds.
The New York-based company attributed some of its success to remaining a reliable and responsible investor with decades of experience in a risky and volatile sector driven by speculative data center projects to meet the demands of artificial intelligence.
“Brookfield has been doing large-scale infrastructure for decades. … We don’t take a different approach to AI infrastructure than we do to other infrastructure asset classes,” Connor TeskeyCEO of Brookfield Asset Management, said on Friday’s third quarter earnings call. “We look to de-risk the development, only put capital on the ground if we have secured offtake, equipment supply, and permits. We only build in places where we have long-term community support.”
Executives dismissed concerns about a broad stock market sell-off following midterm elections earlier this week that saw many anti-AI Democrats elected, saying: “We really don’t see ourselves changing our business model.
Brookfield Asset Management’s revenue reached $2.1 billion in the third quarter, up 72 percent from the same period last year. Net income grew to only $3 billion in the third quarter and $5.4 billion last year, from nearly $700 million and $2.5 billion, respectively, from the same period last year.
Fee-related earnings recorded $864 million during the quarter and $3.3 billion over the trailing 12 months — increases of 15 and 18 percent, respectively, compared to the same period a year earlier. Fee-related earnings rose 15 percent to $864 million during the quarter.
The company distributed $18 billion in the third quarter, down from $21 billion in the previous quarter, while monetizing or agreeing to sell investments of $12 billion, up from $11 billion in the previous quarter.
It is completely acquired from Oaktreebuy the remaining 26 percent interest in the credit business for $ 3 billion. In July, Brookfield partnered with the chip giant Nvidia and a South Korean internet company Naver on a $9 billion investment in AI computing infrastructure.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.