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Brookfield Asset Management has raised $20bn for one of the largest private funds dedicated to investing in energy transition assets, benefiting from interest from investors in powering the artificial intelligence boom.
The Canadian group said the fund was closed after commitments from existing and new investors, including $2bn from Alterra, launched by the United Arab Emirates two years ago, and $1.5bn from Norges Bank Investment Management.
Brookfield’s holding company, Brookfield Corporation, would contribute about a quarter of the fund, said a source briefed matter.
More than $5bn has already been funnelled into clean energy investments, including the $6.6bn acquisition of French renewable energy and battery storage developer Neoen last year.
The Brookfield Global Transition Fund II has also secured about $3.5bn in co-investment into its portfolio from investors who participated in the Neoen deal, including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.
The fund bought out the former UK National Grid Renewables US onshore business, rebranded as Geronimo Power, earlier this year. It also committed additional funding this year to Brookfield’s Everen joint venture in India, focused on developing wind, solar and battery storage, along with Alterra.
The fund targets investments in longer-term technologies, such as nuclear and carbon capture storage also. A previous Brookfield fund included an investment in Westinghouse, the US nuclear power company, in a joint venture with Canadian uranium miner Cameco.
The Canadian group’s first energy transition fund raised $15bn. It was jointly led by then vice-chair Mark Carney, now Canada’s prime minister, and Connor Teskey, president of Brookfield Asset Management. Carney has since put his Brookfield holding into a blind trust.
Teskey said its second transition fund would help Brookfield succeed in its strategy of investing in technologies that deliver clean, abundant and low-cost energy and transition solutions underpinning the global economy.
“Energy demand is growing fast, driven by the growth of artificial intelligence as well as electrification in industry and transportation,” said Teskey. “Against this backdrop we need an ‘any and all’ approach to energy investment that will continue to favour low carbon resources.”
US President Donald Trump has described renewable energy as a “joke”. He told more than 150 world leaders at the UN recently: “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
Global electricity demand is rising rapidly, however, as a result of construction of power-hungry internet data centres required to fuel the AI boom, as well as the electrification of transport and other industries. This is fuelling a surge in investment in power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure.
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