Unglamorous world of ‘data infrastructure’ driving hot tech M&A market in AI race

Weighed down by tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty, dealmaking has slowed to a crawl across most industries except one: the unglamorous world of data infrastructure.

The companies that process the data used to build advanced AI models have become highly sought after targets for legacy tech companies like Meta, Salesforce, and ServiceNow in the scramble to stay competitive against the likes of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.

“AI without data is like life without oxygen, it doesn’t exist,” said Brian Marshall, global co-head of software investment…