The Infrastructure Investor Podcast

In this year's last episode, editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Doug Kimmelman, founder and executive chairman of Energy Capital Partners. Today's discussion focuses on the US electricity market, which is experiencing a "shining moment" driven by unprecedented demand growth after 30 years of stagnation. Key drivers include the massive power needs of artificial intelligence and data centres, along with LNG exports, the onshoring of manufacturing, and the expansion of electric vehicles and crypto mining. This surging demand - which could require as much as 400GW of new capacity, including replacements for retiring coal and nuclear plants - is rapidly transforming the sector. With that in mind, we discuss how the market is prioritising slowing the retirement of existing generation, brownfield expansions, and fast-to-deploy solar and storage, while the reliance on natural gas increases despite turbine bottlenecks. We also explore how the presence of hyperscalers with strong balance sheets is reshaping the contracting environment, leading to longer-tenure, highly financeable power purchase agreements.

Waldemar Szlezak, KKR's Global Head of Digital Infrastructure, brings deep expertise in data centers and AI-related investments. He discusses the real demand for AI infrastructure versus potential market bubbles, highlighting overheating risks during a fast capex cycle. Szlezak explains the lifespan of data centers compared to rapidly aging GPUs, the concept of 'coordination tax,' and KKR's integrated strategies. He also shares insights on construction efficiencies and the industry's challenges, from regulatory hurdles to evolving hyperscaler needs.

Tom Taylor, APAC real assets reporter, shares insights from the recent Infrastructure Investor Network Australia Forum. He discusses how geopolitics is reshaping investment strategies and the surge in AI-driven infrastructure needs, particularly in data centers. Taylor highlights foreign investors' concerns over new Australian tax rules and the stagnation in renewables, alongside the maturation of Japan's investor base. He also touches on South Korea's rise as an AI hub and the emphasis on relationship-driven capital in building investor trust.

In this episode, Infrastructure Investor editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Americas editor Zak Bentley to talk about the record fundraising year the asset class is having for unlisted, closed-end structures. With $200 billion raised during the first nine months of the year – and a further $30 billion added to that since we published our fundraising report – 2025 has handily surpassed the heady years of 2021-22. What’s more, with one quarter to go, expect fundraising to climb to hitherto unimaginable heights. Our discussion, then, hinges on how we got to this extraordinary moment for the asset class, what’s behind the headline figures, the continuing importance of time on the road in shaping the market, what fundraising in future years could look like, LP appetite and more.

This episode is sponsored by Fengate Asset Management and Arcus Infrastructure Partners As a backlash against ESG gathers strength, particularly in the United States, it might be reasonable to assume that infrastructure managers are quietly retreating from their sustainability commitments. While it is true that some managers are adjusting their language in how they talk about ESG and sustainability, we find that others are still eager to emphasise their importance to the asset class. In this episode, Della Wang, director for responsible investment at Fengate Asset Management, and Neil Krawitz, partner and head of ESG and asset management at Arcus Infrastructure Partners, discuss how managers need to take a long-term view when it comes to sustainability. They agree that a key focus now needs to be on adaptation, as climate change forces managers to confront the reality of more frequent and extreme weather events.

This episode is sponsored by Antin Infrastructure Partners The infrastructure market is constantly evolving, with technological advancements, environmental concerns and shifting economic and demographic trends bringing significant changes to the transport sector. So staying on top of a series of mega-trends – such as decarbonisation and digitalisation – can unearth exciting investment opportunities. This episode focuses on key trends in the space and how investors can take advantage of them. Angelika Schöchlin, managing partner at Antin Infrastructure Partners, and Simon Soder, senior partner and head of the firm’s London office, cover everything from safety management infrastructure and high-speed rail to salmon farming, underlining the dynamic set opportunities within the transport sector.

In this episode, Infrastructure Investor editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Sikander Rashid, global head of AI Infrastructure at Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield is the largest manager in the world, according to our Infrastructure Investor 100 ranking. It also bills itself as the world’s “largest digital infrastructure investor – with more than $100 billion invested to date – and the world’s largest private capital investor in clean energy”. Both are handy as it launches its new AI infrastructure strategy. Unsurprisingly, we spend a lot of time talking about how that strategy will work, and why Brookfield decided to create it. A highlight of our conversation is how Brookfield intends to bring down the cost of capital for compute – via GPU-as-a-service, for example – and whether those investments will check the right infrastructure investment boxes. We also touch on the growing investment opportunity in stabilised data centres, digital sovereignty and much more.

In this episode, editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Americas editor Zak Bentley to talk about the fundraising performance of the asset class during the first half of the year. With more than $134 billion raised for unlisted, closed-end funds, H1 2025 is already better than the whole of 2024. Our discussion delves into how solid the fundraising recovery is, the importance of the mega-funds, how metrics like time on the road have evolved, what fundraising for 2026 could look like, LP appetite, and much more.

In this episode, Infrastructure Investor editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Stonepeak chairman, CEO and co-founder Michael Dorrell. Stonepeak is the seventh-largest manager in the world, according to our Infrastructure Investor 100 ranking, and Dorrell is a well-known industry veteran. So perhaps unsurprisingly, a large portion of our discussion focused on how the asset class has been evolving. For example, how strong are the moats of different types of infrastructure assets, and what’s the next best thing if they don’t have a strong moat? Why does Dorrell feel that a scarcity of power actually improved the moats and the longevity of contracts in the data centre sector? How is he feeling about the health of the US renewables sector? What thresholds had to be crossed for Stonepeak, a predominantly North America-focused investor, to branch out into other geographies? And much more.

In this episode, editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Madeleine Farman, editor of affiliate title Secondaries Investor and host of the Second Thoughts Podcast, as well as Americas editor Zak Bentley to talk about the infrastructure secondaries market. The discussion tracks the evolution of the burgeoning infrastructure secondaries market, the asset class’s best-in-class pricing compared to other private asset classes, how LP-led deals rule by volume but GP-led transactions end up being the most sizeable, the outsized role of continuation funds, the promise of the nascent buyer-led secondaries opportunity, and much more.