UAE's Core42 Anchors $235M Minneapolis Data Centre Conversion in Cross-Border AI Infrastructure Push
Core42, the cloud and AI infrastructure subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's G42 Group, has leased 20 megawatts of capacity in a converted office building in downtown Minneapolis, anchoring a facility that Legacy Investing spent more than $70 million transforming in 2025 alone — expanding it from approximately 2 megawatts to 21 megawatts. In January 2026, Cloud Capital and Bahrain-based asset manager Arcapita acquired the property at 1001 Third Avenue South for $235 million through a joint venture, reflecting the premium that data centre conversions now command over traditional office valuations. Core42's US expansion extends beyond Minneapolis: the company holds a ten-year lease with TeraWulf for more than 70 megawatts at the Lake Mariner facility in upstate New York, with an option for a further 135 megawatts, and has established its European headquarters in Dublin. G42 also announced a $1 billion data centre investment in Vietnam. The parent company is simultaneously constructing the Stargate UAE campus — the international flagship of the $500 billion Stargate joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi sovereign vehicle MGX — with full build-out targeting one gigawatt of capacity at a projected cost exceeding $30 billion.
Why this matters
The $235 million acquisition and Core42's anchor lease illustrate how sovereign AI capital is now moving directly into US real estate and power markets, creating a new class of cross-border infrastructure transaction. The premium paid over conventional office valuations is a live data point for capital markets practitioners pricing AI-driven real estate financings. Gulf sovereign involvement in US compute infrastructure carries active national security dimensions: G42 severed ties with Chinese technology companies in 2024 under US government pressure, and Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in G42 as part of that realignment. The TeraWulf and Minneapolis deals together suggest Core42 is building a distributed US footprint — prioritising enterprise proximity over hyperscale density — which has distinct implications for how these assets are financed and structured.
On the Ground
Trainees on real estate finance or capital markets seats should note how the office-to-data-centre conversion model is generating bespoke financing structures that blend property, infrastructure, and technology mandates. The Arcapita involvement signals that Gulf Islamic finance vehicles are active in this asset class, adding an extra layer of structuring consideration. Watch for how lenders are treating power-capacity commitments as credit-relevant covenants in these deals.
Interview prep
Soundbite
Sovereign AI capital is repricing US real estate by treating compute capacity as the core asset.
Question you might get
“How does the national security dimension of Gulf sovereign investment in US AI infrastructure affect the legal structuring of these data centre acquisitions?”
Full answer
Core42's Minneapolis lease and the $235 million acquisition of the converted office building show how Abu Dhabi's G42 is building a distributed US data centre footprint funded partly by Gulf capital vehicles like Arcapita. The deal is notable for capital markets lawyers because the pricing — $235 million for a 21 megawatt asset — reflects compute capacity rather than traditional real estate fundamentals. Legacy Investing's $70 million conversion spend in 2025 alone signals how much capital is being deployed to retrofit urban buildings. The national security overlay, given G42's prior ties to Chinese tech and its subsequent Microsoft partnership, means these transactions attract regulatory scrutiny beyond standard CFIUS review. For practitioners, the structuring challenge is bridging real estate, infrastructure, and technology finance conventions in a single deal.
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