The Investment Layer
The AI infrastructure M&A map
Every material deal 2023-2026 across the six layers of AI infrastructure, four through-lines that describe them, and fifteen forward candidates by name. Part II of The Investment Layer.
AI infrastructure
The Investment Layer
How the AI buildout is financed
Six pools of capital finance the AI infrastructure buildout: hyperscaler cash flow, REITs, OEM balance sheets, structured debt, sovereign, and PE. Part I of The Investment Layer.
Essay
The Capacitor Stack: How Energy Storage Became Core Compute Infrastructure
The 800VDC transition has quietly turned four sleepy component categories — HSCs, EDLCs, MLCCs, and silicon capacitors — into some of the most supply-constrained, contested layers of the AI buildout. A layer-by-layer analysis.
Essay
The architecture map (where every stage lives, who builds it, what's standardized) (3/13)
The DC transition isn’t one decision. It’s a stack of six. Most operators making AI infrastructure decisions in 2026 are getting one thing wrong — they’re treating it as monolithic.
Essay
Two architectures wearing the same name (and why hyperscalers built their own) (2/13)
The trade press writes about "the move to 800 VDC" as if it's one thing. It isn't. There are at least two competing architectures wearing that label — and they don't look much alike.
Essay
The real reason data centres are going DC (and it's not capacity alone) (1/13)
The DC transition isn't one thing and it isn't just about capacity. Four forces are pushing hyperscalers toward DC power architecture: density economics, grid constraints, GPU synchronicity, and hyperscaler strategy.