The Blackstone president expects Meta, Google and Oracle to tap equity markets as demand for compute outruns supply
Building artificial intelligence turns out to be very expensive. Blackstone President Jon Gray thinks the bills are about to get bigger, and that tech giants will have to raise a lot more money to pay them.
Speaking at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong on November 3, 2026, Gray said the AI boom will push tech companies toward more large-scale capital raisings. His reasoning is simple. Demand for chips, data centers and computing power is growing faster than anyone can build it.
Who’s expected to pass the hat
Gray pointed to a few of the biggest names in tech as likely candidates. Meta, Google and Oracle are expected to pursue significant equity fundraising to support their expanding AI operations.
Gray also flagged two potential initial public offerings that could add to the pressure on capital markets: SpaceX and Anthropic. Neither is confirmed. Still, the mere possibility of both hitting public markets would mean a large new claim on investor money.
The core issue, as Gray framed it, is an imbalance. The need for data centers and energy infrastructure is enormous, and the growth in demand for computing power is running well ahead of available supply.
The $820 billion number
In earlier remarks, Gray put a figure on the spending wave. He said capital expenditures by hyperscalers are projected to double to $820 billion.
According to Gray, that $820 billion would represent about 2.5% of US GDP.
Volatility hasn’t changed the thesis
Gray’s comments land after a bumpy stretch for tech stocks. Recent selloffs have been driven partly by investor worries about how much money is being poured into AI, and whether it will pay off.
Gray, however, remains upbeat about future investment in AI infrastructure. He views the gap between supply and demand as a strong signal, not a warning sign.
Blackstone has been steering capital toward the physical backbone of AI, including data centers and power assets. The supply shortfall Gray describes is, conveniently, the exact problem those investments aim to solve.
What this means for markets
If Meta, Google and Oracle all move forward with significant equity raises, public markets will see a wave of new shares from some of the most widely held stocks in the world.
A potential SpaceX listing and a potential Anthropic listing would compete for the same pool of capital as the incumbents’ fundraisings.
Gray’s emphasis on data centers and energy points to where much of the spending will actually land. Every AI model needs physical computing capacity, and every data center needs reliable power.
