A recent report from McKinsey & Company details the need for massive investments for global infrastructure upgrades. The whole issue of infrastructure has suddenly become far more critical as the ongoing war in the Middle East compromises supply chains.
According to McKinsey, US$106 trillion in infrastructure investment is required by 2040 to meet global needs in both traditional and emerging assets, including data centres and high-speed data networks –– a need that “can no longer be answered by the public sector alone”.
Private infrastructure funding was already on track to address the issue even before the war broke out in February. PitchBook’s private markets fundraising report says that private real asset funds raised a record $206.6 billion last year, with infrastructure vehicles accounting for 93.8% of the total.
Top infrastructure funds, like the $25.2 billion Global Infrastructure Partners V and $23.1 billion EQT Infrastructure VI funds, are going to drive infrastructure like never before.
The third largest fund to close in 2025 was Brookfield Asset Management’s $20 billion Global Transition Fund II, focused entirely on global energy transition infrastructure, pointing to the direction of future investments.
In fact, oil and gas accounted for just 4.3% of last year’s fundraising total. The share has never broken above 10% since 2019. Infrastructure investors, who traditionally invest for the long term, have clearly been looking beyond the potential impact of a second Trump term to actual long-term prospects for the oil and gas industry.
But that’s not to discount overall energy infrastructure investment. According to McKinsey, $23 trillion of the $106 trillion needed for infrastructure investment within the next 14 years will be for energy and power. In the US alone, power demand is expected to expand more than 3% annually after growing at less than 1% for the past 15 years.
These fundraising dynamics in infrastructure alongside the sudden far more urgent need for restructuring the energy supply chain can only enhance prospects for energy transition.
PitchBook highlighted 2025 as potentially “the beginning of the golden age of infrastructure investing”. It’s an investment case that is likely to be reinforced this year.
