Citi’s Strategic Play in AI Infrastructure
Citigroup has created a dedicated AI infrastructure banking team and, through its Markets Strategic Investments unit, taken a stake in Tokyo-based Sakana AI. The moves signal a bankaing pivot toward supporting the capital needs of AI infrastructure from data centers to high-performance computing capacity and related digital assets.
Building a Dedicated AI Banking Team
The new team pulls senior leaders from investment banking, corporate banking, and transaction banking to provide integrated advisory, debt financing, private credit and M&A coverage for infrastructure projects that underpin large-scale AI deployments. Its mandate is to break internal silos so Citi can structure multi-product solutions for clients building and operating data centers, procuring GPUs and arranging long-term financing for compute-heavy platforms.
“We see AI infrastructure as a distinct financing market that requires cross-capability execution,” said David Ha, who is leading Citi’s AI infrastructure initiative. “Combining advisory and balance sheet solutions lets us meet the capital intensity these projects demand.”
Quantifying the Trillion-Dollar AI Opportunity
Citi estimates the global AI infrastructure market will need roughly $3 trillion of capital by 2030. That figure covers new data center builds, upgrades to power and cooling, procurement of accelerators and investment in software-defined assets. For banks, this creates an opportunity for long-tenor lending, syndications, structured credit and advisory fees tied to large-scale industrial projects.
Strategic Investment in Sakana AI
Citi’s Markets Strategic Investments took a stake in Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based company focused on cloud-native AI infrastructure and orchestration tools. The investment is notable as Citi’s first strategic markets investment in Japan and reflects a regional interest in Asia’s growing AI ecosystem.
“Sakana AI represents a new frontier in how compute is delivered and consumed,” said Robert Nakamura of Citi’s Markets Strategic Investments. “Our participation aligns with a broader effort to back platforms that will shape AI infrastructure deployment across the region.”
Implications for Banking and AI Growth
Citi’s actions indicate traditional banks are moving from client services to strategic capital deployment in AI. Expect more product innovation across debt financing, private credit and advisory as financial institutions compete to fund the infrastructure that will support the next wave of AI applications.
