The Zhitong Finance App learned that Raj Rao, president and chief operating officer of BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), said on Wednesday that in the next 10 to 15 years, global infrastructure investment will bring opportunities of more than 100 trillion US dollars, and more than half of this expenditure may be spent on energy and power-related projects.
Rao said at the New Economic Forum held in New Delhi that the scale of this opportunity is equivalent to about 3 trillion to 4 trillion US dollars per year, and the capital is expected to come from private capital, government, and public financing markets.
GIP is a BlackRock subsidiary with over $200 billion in assets under management, focusing on energy, power and digital infrastructure. In recent years, as governments and companies have invested heavily in data centers, power grids, and energy transitions, the growth of GIP reflects a widespread surge in investors' demand for infrastructure.
“You need lots of new construction projects, which involve trillions of dollars,” said Rao. In my opinion, this ultimately has to come from private capital. But for private capital to flow in, proper regulation, risk control, and technology are needed.”
Rao said the infrastructure asset class barely existed 20 years ago and has now grown to around $1.5 trillion.
The rise of digital infrastructure construction in the past four or five years has greatly increased global electricity demand. Demand for electricity in the US is expected to grow by 2-3% over the next five years, while emerging economies such as India also need energy.
Part of the supply may come from nuclear energy, which is critical to decarbonization. However, Rao said that in order to increase investors' interest in nuclear energy, the project needs to be executed with a faster delivery time.
Rao said GIP “is still investing heavily in the US, European and Asian markets” because these markets have higher risk returns.