Pranav Hotkar
New York, United States - June 29, 2026 - Investment manager Altes Capital and environmental data company Zero Intensity have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at bringing standardized, asset-level environmental analysis into the underwriting of data center infrastructure, as investors face growing scrutiny over power availability, permitting, and community acceptance of AI-driven projects.
The collaboration will see Altes evaluate the use of Zero Intensity's Zero Intensity Protocol (ZIP) as part of its due diligence process for relevant data center investments. The framework is designed to provide consistent, verifiable data on environmental and operational characteristics that increasingly influence whether data center projects can secure financing, insurance, permits, and long-term community support.
The initiative comes as the AI infrastructure boom accelerates worldwide. According to Goldman Sachs, cumulative AI infrastructure capital expenditures could reach approximately USD 7.6 trillion between 2026 and 2031, creating unprecedented demand for new data center capacity. At the same time, developers are encountering mounting challenges related to grid access, environmental approvals, water consumption, and local opposition, making project execution more complex than in previous expansion cycles.
Zero Intensity said its protocol standardizes how environmental attributes are measured, verified, and reported at the individual asset level. Rather than relying on broad corporate sustainability disclosures, the framework evaluates each facility independently, giving investors, insurers, and lenders a more transparent basis for assessing project risk. Qualifying facilities may receive the company's Clean Compute designation, which recognizes compliance with the ZIP framework but is not a government certification or guarantee of environmental performance.
The partnership reflects a broader evolution in data center financing. As AI campuses become larger and more power-intensive, infrastructure investors are placing greater emphasis on factors beyond customer demand, including electricity availability, permitting timelines, operational resilience, and environmental performance. Industry analysts expect private capital to play an increasingly important role in funding hyperscale and AI-ready facilities, while investors seek more rigorous methods to distinguish lower-risk projects from those facing execution challenges.
The collaboration also has implications for the insurance sector. CAC, part of The Baldwin Group, said insurers are increasingly incorporating measurable environmental data into underwriting decisions, moving beyond traditional binary coverage assessments toward pricing models that reflect verified sustainability and operational metrics. That approach could enable developers with stronger environmental performance to secure more favorable insurance terms while improving transparency across the market.
Although the companies are not announcing a specific investment or financing transaction, the agreement highlights how environmental intelligence is becoming an increasingly important component of digital infrastructure underwriting. As AI data center construction expands globally, investors and insurers are seeking standardized asset-level information to better evaluate project viability, allocate capital more efficiently, and manage long-term infrastructure risk.
