At Metro Connect 2025, Marc Ganzi, the CEO of Digital Bridge, took center stage to deliver a thought-provoking keynote that unraveled the complexities of the digital infrastructure sector, explored the hype around artificial intelligence (AI), and shed light on the challenges and opportunities the industry faces in the coming years.
Ganzi’s speech was a mix of insightful industry analysis, personal anecdotes, and a look into the future of digital infrastructure, with an emphasis on AI’s role in shaping the data center landscape.
The Evolution of Digital Infrastructure: From Humble Beginnings to AI Backbone
Ganzi began by reflecting on the 11-year journey of Digital Bridge, emphasizing its transformation from a merchant bank into a diversified asset manager with a focus on digital infrastructure. He outlined the rapid growth the company has seen, now managing over $96 billion in assets across 53 companies globally. The company’s shift towards an asset-light model has been pivotal, allowing Digital Bridge to invest across various verticals, particularly in data centers, fiber networks, and towers, while maintaining flexibility to meet customer needs.
The evolution of digital infrastructure, according to Ganzi, has been driven by four key pillars: mobility, cloud computing, AI, and fiber connectivity. He stressed that the industry’s role as the “pick and shovel” of these technological revolutions has been pivotal, and it remains mission-critical to global economies. Ganzi highlighted that digital infrastructure, particularly in AI, is indispensable, describing it as an “essential” and “defensible” sector with highly predictable growth.
AI: A Double-Edged Sword of Opportunity and Risk
The hype surrounding AI, which has taken the tech world by storm, was a focal point of Ganzi’s address. He acknowledged the enthusiasm but warned against unbridled optimism, urging the audience to temper expectations. Ganzi shared his experiences over the past 18 months, where he found himself “walking investors off the AI cliff” due to the often exaggerated claims about the potential of AI.
Ganzi revealed that AI is indeed a massive opportunity for digital infrastructure, with an estimated $300 billion of power consumption and capital expenditures required to meet the surging demand for AI workloads. However, he pointed out that the real challenge lies not in the availability of power but in its transmission and distribution. He likened the sector’s shift toward AI to a massive power grid challenge, where the focus should be on ensuring reliable, low-latency, and high-capacity power connections to data centers.
Despite the hype, Ganzi was pragmatic about the challenges that lie ahead. He addressed concerns over recent reports like Microsoft’s cancellation of data center leases, which some interpreted as a sign of declining demand. Ganzi reassured the audience that the long-term outlook for the industry remains strong, with significant capital expenditures continuing to flow into the sector. According to his projections, leasing activity will actually rise in 2025, underscoring the ongoing demand for robust digital infrastructure.
The Power Challenge: Transmission and Distribution
One of the most striking parts of Ganzi’s keynote was his focus on power – the linchpin of AI, cloud, and mobility. He described the transmission and distribution of power as the “real bottleneck” in scaling digital infrastructure. The sector is facing a significant challenge in transmitting power from generation sources to data centers, particularly in regions where the infrastructure is aging or underdeveloped.
Ganzi emphasized that the growth of AI and other bandwidth-intensive technologies would place an enormous strain on existing power grids. The ability to deliver power efficiently and consistently to the right locations will determine the pace at which digital infrastructure can evolve to meet AI’s needs.
Capital Markets and the Future of Private Credit
In a rapidly changing investment landscape, Ganzi also discussed the role of private credit in funding digital infrastructure. He explained how the industry is adapting to new financial structures that allow for more flexibility in capital raising. With $17 billion in debt raised last year, Digital Bridge has seen a growing interest in alternative financing models, which are becoming increasingly important as traditional avenues of capital get more competitive.
This shift is set to continue, with Ganzi forecasting up to $90 billion in digital infrastructure debt over the next five years. The diverse ways in which capital is being deployed, including private loans and equity investments, are redefining how digital infrastructure projects are funded and developed.
The Road Ahead: Investment and Innovation in a Digital-First World
Ganzi concluded his keynote by reaffirming the unprecedented investment opportunities in the digital infrastructure space. From the ongoing growth in AI to the rapidly expanding demands of cloud computing and mobile data, the need for robust and scalable infrastructure is undeniable.
The demand for connectivity, latency reduction, and data processing power will continue to rise, and Ganzi made it clear that fiber remains the connective tissue holding it all together. As the industry braces for a future driven by AI, the focus must be on innovative infrastructure solutions that can keep up with the explosive growth in data consumption.
For those in the room, the message was clear: the next wave of digital transformation is here, and the infrastructure that underpins it will define the future. Whether through data centers, fiber networks, or power grids, the digital infrastructure sector is positioned to thrive – if it can meet the challenges head-on.
Marc Ganzi’s keynote at Metro Connect 2025 underscored the critical importance of digital infrastructure in an increasingly interconnected world, with AI at the forefront of the next wave of technological evolution. The sector’s resilience and capacity for innovation will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of global connectivity.
Miss the event? Not to worry, Metro Connect will be colocating a Fall event with Techoraco’s Datacloud USA event. The event is called Metro Connect Fall and takes place in Austin, TX from September 16-17, 2025. Learn more here: https://metroconnectfall.com.
