July 20264 min read
Project Finance Skills for Power-Heavy Digital Infrastructure
AI has changed the economics of data centers, and it has also changed the profile of the professionals financing them.
Project finance has always evolved alongside infrastructure. Every new generation of infrastructure assets demands new underwriting expertise as financing structures become more complex. Data centers are the latest evolution, but the scale of investment is unlike anything the market has seen before.
McKinsey estimates that nearly $7 trillion of capital will be invested in data center infrastructure globally by 2030, with $5.2 trillion directed toward AI-enabled facilities alone. As developers, lenders, infrastructure funds, and private capital race to finance that build-out, we are all discovering that traditional project finance expertise is no longer sufficient.
Project finance professionals are increasingly expected to assess energy risk alongside construction, operational, and commercial risk. That combination remains relatively rare because most have built their careers financing power assets, utilities, or renewable energy projects, rather than actual digital infrastructure itself.
As lenders, infrastructure funds, sponsors, and technical advisers build dedicated data center capabilities, understanding where these skills can come from and how they translate is becoming an increasingly important competitive advantage to those hiring.
Here at Selby Jennings, our conversations with lenders, infrastructure investors, and developers point to the same conclusion: there are very few professionals who can evaluate energy risk alongside traditional project finance considerations within a single transaction. As financing structures become more sophisticated, we expect that shortage to become more pronounced before the market catches up.
Understanding why data center project finance is structurally different
Finding the right talent begins with understanding the role itself, because data center project finance demands a different combination of technical, commercial, and underwriting expertise than most infrastructure sectors.
While the fundamentals of project finance remain unchanged, such as assessing construction risk, operating performance, contracts, and cash flow, what has changed is the number of variables that sit outside a project’s boundaries:
Securing sufficient grid capacity is now on the critical path for financial close. Developers may have the land, tenants, and capital in place, but without certainty over power availability, financing assumptions become significantly more difficult to support. Grid interconnection delays can postpone revenue generation by years, directly affecting debt sizing, returns, and project viability.
AI heavy workloads have altered the operating profile of modern data centers, making long-term power requirements more difficult to predict than in traditional colocation developments. Uncertainty around future utilization is influencing revenue forecasting, downside scenarios, and the resilience of capital structure.
Project finance has traditionally relied on assets with predictable operating lives and stable performance characteristics to generate steady cash flow. Still, data centers operate on a different cycle due to the technology they support changing much more rapidly. If such technology becomes outdated, assets may require an expensive upgrade or could lose competitiveness fast. Underwriting therefore increasingly requires an assessment of how future computing requirements, tenant expectations, and capital expenditure needs could affect long-term cash flows.
Taken together, these factors are changing how transactions are structured and financed, resulting in project finance professionals needing to underwrite the interaction between energy infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and long-term commercial demand.
The energy transition is reshaping deal structures
The pressure to secure reliable, lower-carbon power is adding another layer of complexity to data center financing. AI-driven facilities require continuous and increasingly large volumes of electricity, while renewable generation is variable and grid capacity remains constrained in many key markets.
The challenge is therefore not simply to procure green power, but to assemble an energy strategy that can meet operational requirements while supporting the cash flow certainty expected by lenders and investors.
Power purchase agreements are becoming more complex
Traditional renewable PPAs may provide long-term price visibility, but they do not necessarily match the location, timing, or volume of a data center’s electricity consumption. This creates risks that must increasingly be reflected in financial models and transaction structures.
Two exposures are particularly important:
- Basis risk: the potential mismatch between electricity prices at the generation point and at the data center’s location.
- Shaping risk: the cost of sourcing power when contracted renewable generation does not align with the facility’s demand profile.
As a result, lenders are assessing broader power portfolios rather than individual PPAs in isolation, which may be a combination of renewable contracts, utility supply, storage, hedging arrangements, and other forms of capacity.
On-site generation is changing the financing perimeter
Developers are also considering on-site or co-located generation to reduce exposure to grid delays and improve resilience. Potential solutions include gas-fired generation, battery storage, fuel cells, and other distributed energy systems.
This naturally expands the scope of the transaction, because finance professionals may need to underwrite not only the data center and its customer contracts, but also fuel supply, generation performance, environmental obligations, and the interaction between power costs and tenant revenues.
The result is a more integrated financing structure in which digital infrastructure and energy infrastructure can no longer be assessed separately.
Nuclear adjacency is creating new structures
Interest in nuclear-adjacent data centers reflects demand for large volumes of reliable, lower-carbon electricity. This may reduce certain market and transmission exposures, but they introduce other major considerations, such as regulatory approvals, contractual dependencies, land arrangements, concentration risk, and the long-term availability of the generating asset.
Taken together, these developments are changing the way data center projects are financed. Transactions increasingly sit at the intersection of commercial real estate, energy infrastructure, and project finance, requiring professionals who can evaluate risks across disciplines.
Where are firms finding these professionals?
Few project finance professionals begin their careers in data centers, with most transitioning from adjacent sectors where they developed expertise in financing complex infrastructure assets:
Power and conventional energy remains one of the strongest talent pools. These professionals bring experience structuring long-term financing around generation assets, fuel supply, power purchase agreements, and grid infrastructure. As power procurement becomes central to data center developments, many of these skills transfer very naturally.
Renewable energy project finance professionals also offer valuable expertise, particularly in managing merchant exposure, renewable PPAs, basis risk, and increasingly sophisticated financing structures. While the underlying assets differ, the commercial and contractual challenges have become increasingly relevant to data center transactions.
Telecommunications and digital infrastructure finance professionals provide a different perspective. Their experience with fiber networks, towers, and digital assets gives them a strong understanding of long-term customer contracts, technology adoption, and the infrastructure that supports the digital economy.
Infrastructure funds, lenders, and financial advisers are increasingly looking beyond direct data center experience when building teams. Rather than searching for candidates who have completed numerous data center transactions, which is a relatively small talent pool, they are prioritizing professionals who can apply transferable project finance skills to an evolving asset class.
Firms assessing talent will of course look for direct sector experience which remains highly valued, but the ability to consider power markets and those with long-term infrastructure risk knowledge is becoming equally important if you want to assess, and attract, the right talent.
How firms are building capability
Many organizations are also investing in dedicated digital infrastructure capabilities. Blackstone, for example, has expanded its digital infrastructure platform as part of a broader strategy spanning data centers, telecommunications, and related assets. Citi has similarly established a dedicated AI infrastructure banking team, reflecting growing demand for specialist financing expertise as investment in AI infrastructure accelerates.
These developments highlight a broader shift across the market. Data centers are no longer viewed as a niche infrastructure asset but as a specialist financing discipline requiring expertise that bridges project finance, energy markets, and digital infrastructure. As a result, firms are increasingly prioritizing adaptability and transferable skills over direct sector experience alone.
Assembling stronger data center project finance teams
As demand for data center financing grows, competition for experienced professionals will only intensify, but the strongest hires are not always those with direct data center experience. More often, they are project finance specialists from adjacent sectors who have already developed the commercial judgement and underwriting expertise these transactions require.
Identifying those professionals requires a detailed understanding of both the project finance market and the developing demands of digital infrastructure. At Selby Jennings, we map talent across power, renewables, telecommunications infrastructure, and broader infrastructure finance, allowing us to identify professionals with the transferable skills required to succeed in data center project finance.
As part of Phaidon International, we work alongside specialist talent brands covering engineering, construction, energy, and the wider data center ecosystem. This broader market reach enables us to identify talent across the full project lifecycle, not just within traditional finance functions.
Our specialist consultants engage professionals long before they enter the active job market, giving clients access to talent that is rarely available through traditional recruitment channels.
Whether you're expanding an existing team or making your first specialist hire, our consultants can help you secure the talent needed to stay ahead in one of infrastructure's fastest-growing markets. Request a call back or submit your vacancy today.
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