Inside Alts: EQT's Salata says AI infrastructure buildout has years to run

Key Concepts

• Active Ownership: A strategy where the firm takes an active role in the management and value creation of portfolio companies rather than acting as a passive investor.
• Evergreen Funds: Open-ended investment structures that allow for ongoing capital inflows and outflows, providing more liquidity than traditional closed-end private equity funds.
• Secondaries: The buying and selling of existing private equity fund interests or portfolios of assets, which EQT views as a maturing market essential for liquidity.
• AI Infrastructure: The physical and digital ecosystem required to support artificial intelligence, including data centers, energy assets, and connectivity solutions.
• Hyperscalers: Large-scale cloud computing providers (e.g., Amazon, Google, Microsoft) that require massive data center and energy capacity.
• Alpha: The excess return on an investment relative to the return of a benchmark index.

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1. Strategic Goals and Firm Philosophy

Jean Salada, the new Global Chair of EQT, emphasizes a transition from a founder-led firm to a multigenerational institution. Backed by the Wallenberg family, EQT maintains a long-term perspective on value creation.

• Core Objective: To deliver exceptional returns while broadening revenue sources through diversification.
• Strategic Focus: EQT focuses on active ownership in private equity, infrastructure, and real estate. They are currently expanding into secondaries via the acquisition of Coller Capital.
• Market Positioning: As the largest private markets firm headquartered outside the U.S., EQT leverages its global footprint (65% of investments are outside the U.S.) to offer a unique vantage point to North American clients.

2. The North American Expansion and AI Infrastructure

Despite a crowded U.S. market, EQT is aggressively expanding, targeting $250 billion in investments over the next five years.

• Data Center Success: EQT’s "EdgeConneX" platform, which owns over 90 data centers, has grown 20-fold in seven years.
• Integrated Solutions: EQT differentiates itself by providing a "full solution" package that includes not just data centers, but also the energy assets and digital connectivity required by hyperscalers.
• AI Outlook: Salada argues we are in the early stages of AI transformation. He dismisses the "bubble" narrative, noting that current AI infrastructure investments are backed by real revenue-generating demand rather than speculative "eyeballs."
• Energy Constraints: EQT acknowledges the strain on the power grid caused by AI. Their strategy involves investing in renewable energy assets—often "behind the grid"—to mitigate pressure on public infrastructure.

3. European Innovation and the "Scale Up" Mandate

EQT was selected by the European Commission to manage the $5 billion "Scale Up Europe" fund.

• The Problem: Europe has no shortage of early-stage innovation, but it suffers from a "funding gap" once companies reach the growth stage. Successful European startups often migrate to the U.S. to access deeper capital pools.
• The Goal: To create "domestic champions" in sectors like quantum computing, AI, and life sciences, keeping innovation and talent within Europe.
• Geopolitical Strategy: EQT maintains a neutral, "make friends, not enemies" approach, focusing on domestically oriented service companies (e.g., hospitals in India, elevator manufacturing in Japan) to insulate the portfolio from geopolitical trade tensions.

4. Private Wealth and Market Evolution

EQT is successfully tapping into the private wealth market, reporting a record $1.2 billion in inflows in Q1.

• Liquidity and Transparency: EQT’s evergreen products offer individual investors the same deal access as institutional sovereign wealth funds.
• Exit Performance: In a difficult 2025 exit environment, EQT achieved $40 billion in distributions and $15 billion in IPO/sell-down activity, proving the resilience of their portfolio.
• The Future of Secondaries: Salada predicts a "convergence" between public and private markets. He views the $4 trillion in unrealized private assets as a massive opportunity for secondary markets to provide liquidity, similar to how public stock exchanges function today.

5. Perspective on Private Credit

While EQT sold its credit business in 2020, Salada is keeping an "open mind" regarding a potential return to the sector.

• The Barrier: EQT’s DNA is in equity and business building. Entering credit would require a completely separate, large-scale, and specialized team.
• The Entry Point: The firm may explore credit through the lens of "credit secondaries" via the Coller Capital acquisition, which allows them to capitalize on market dislocations without needing to build a traditional lending origination platform from scratch.

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Synthesis

EQT’s strategy is defined by global diversification and active ownership. By focusing on the "full stack" of AI infrastructure and bridging the funding gap for European scale-ups, the firm is positioning itself as a critical partner for both institutional and private wealth investors. Salada’s leadership signals a shift toward institutionalizing the firm for the long term, with a specific focus on using secondary markets to solve the industry's liquidity challenges.