Blackstone Leads $5 Billion Stake in Williams Power Plants

Williams Cos. secured a $5.34 billion investment from a Blackstone Credit & Insurance-led group for a minority stake in five power plants the pipeline giant is building as data centers send electricity demand soaring.

(Bloomberg) — Williams Cos. secured a $5.34 billion investment from a Blackstone Credit & Insurance-led group for a minority stake in five power plants the pipeline giant is building as data centers send electricity demand soaring. Funds managed by Blackstone Inc. in partnership with Apollo Global Management Inc. and accounts managed by KKR & Co. Inc. will acquire a 49% non-controlling interest in the projects, according to a statement Monday.

Williams will retain a 51% stake as well as commercial and operational control. Williams, which operates one of the largest natural gas pipeline networks in the US, began pushing aggressively into power generation in 2025 to capitalize on surging demand for electricity from artificial intelligence. The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company has about $9.6 billion of power projects for data centers under development, including supplying battery storage, gas pipeline connections and power plants that bypass local grids.

“With more than 2.6 gigawatts announced, our Power Innovation portfolio is scaling rapidly, and we look forward to delivering these critical energy solutions for American companies,” Williams Chief Executive Officer Chad Zamarin said in the statement. AI has become Blackstone’s biggest investment theme, with the firm deploying capital across real estate, credit and private equity. The asset manager has focused on hard infrastructure, including utilities, data centers and semiconductor investments.

The commitment includes $4.4 billion to fund 49% of the project’s expected growth capital expenditures and about $900 million payable to Williams, according to the statement. Blackstone has also expanded partnerships tied to AI infrastructure. Last month, it joined Apollo and Broadcom Inc. to help finance chips for Anthropic and OpenAI.

Blackstone President Jon Gray said on an earnings call earlier this year that the firm is looking to partner with investment-grade Fortune 500 companies that are turning to private credit for long-term financing. The five power innovation projects are named Socrates, Apollo, Aquila, Socrates the Younger and Neo. Shares of Williams fell as much as 3% on Monday.

—With assistance from Brian Eckhouse. (Updates with details throughout.)