Google and Blackstone have formed a joint venture to offer AI data center capacity, networking and computer hardware as a “compute-as-a-service product,” the asset manager said. The tie-up opens a new avenue in the rush of private equity into AI infrastructure, moving it beyond data centers and into the business of financing compute itself. Blackstone is making an initial $5 billion equity commitment, with the first 500 megawatts of capacity expected online in 2027, the firm said in a statement.