Milan — 28 April 2026
100 Women in Finance, in collaboration with BlackRock WIN Italy, hosted an evening discussion in Milan focused on one of the most dynamic segments within the infrastructure asset class today: data centers.
Driven by strong demand from hyperscalers and the rapid expansion of AI-related workloads, data centers have quickly moved to the forefront of investor attention, with attractive return expectations in certain segments of the market. At the same time, the discussion highlighted that success in this sector depends not only on demand, but on execution – particularly around access to power, permitting and delivery timelines.
Among the key reflections from the evening:
- Data centers sit at the intersection of infrastructure, energy, real estate and technology – which is precisely what makes them so compelling, and so complex.
- Demand is strong, but delivery is not straightforward: access to power, grid capacity, permitting, cooling, connectivity and construction timelines are increasingly decisive.
A sincere thank you to our speakers – Raffaella Abate (Fondazione Cariplo), Silvana Chilelli (Eurizon Capital Real Asset), Enrico Falck (Larry S.p.A.) and Marco Pugliese (Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP)) – expertly moderated by Elena Simonova (BlackRock), and to BlackRock for hosting the event.
The discussion reinforced a clear message: data centers are becoming a central component of the next infrastructure investment cycle, combining strong demand with operational complexity and disciplined execution.