Inside the AI Infrastructure Super Cycle with EQT Infrastructure CEO Erwin Thompson

And

now 17 years

at

EQT.

It's like, you

know, it's scary.

Well, it's interesting.

I

think nowadays it's challenging to stay at one place that long, you know, for lots of reasons.

You know, consolidation, acquisition, career transitions.

But you did, you had the bug, the happenstance, you made the bet on infrastructure.

You're at this firm now for 17 years.

How have you seen the asset class evolve over that time period in the context of your career?

I mean, the infrastructure industry has definitely gone through multiple evolutions.

I think we go back probably 20, 25 years ago.

Most of the money is being raised with the view of going to solve municipal issues around the country, right? And I think even around the world.

I mean, you did have more... uh privatization experience or execution in the uk and europe as well as australia but it was supposed to be sort of the technology that was going to fix everything in in the u.s and as we saw you know getting you know political offices fully aligned to get a lot of these projects off the ground you know was just not as easy as as one might have thought right and so I think you saw maybe two camps, maybe 80% of the market focusing on privatizations out the gate and 20% like EQT, really focusing on existing private companies that want to bring a typical private equity toolbox, focusing on growth and executing that way.

I think now the market has evolved where you see it flip the other way, where 80% is focusing on operating companies, focusing on growth, and 20% on privatizations that's given to the uncertainty that goes along with, you know, some of these brownfield and greenfield transactions.

And so, I think that's one evolution.

I think, you know, how the asset class is also stratified in the context of, you know, it used to just be infrastructure.

You know, now you have core, core plus, value add, opportunistic.

I mean, there's so many different, you know, flavors of, you know, how you, you know, bifurcate the risk returns across the asset class.

And so, I think that's also you know, been an evolution.

And I think also just in a context of, you know, it's hyper players out the gate, you know, all were really truly middle market players.

And I think we've naturally evolved just given some of the investment needs for certain parts of the market.