Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) shares have benefited from several trends over the years, such as the infrastructure boom. Artificial intelligence (AI) could be one of the global investment bank's next main growth drivers.
As the chart below shows, the Macquarie share price has climbed more than 300% in the past decade. Indeed, the ASX financial share hit an all-time high today of $236.22.
Macquarie has demonstrated an adeptness at identifying future growth areas that are worth investing in, both its own money and client.
The investment bank believes it has identified one of the best ways to take advantage of the AI growth trend.
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Project Lighthouse
According to reporting by the newspaper The Australian, Macquarie named its goal of buying the fibre assets of TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG) 'Project Lighthouse'. The name refers to the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel". To start with, it was reportedly called Project Tornado.
TPG recently announced that it was selling its fibre network infrastructure assets, and enterprise, government and wholesale (EGW) fixed business to Vocus Group (owned by Macquarie) for an enterprise value of $5.25 billion, including a potential $250 million contingent value payment. TPG said it expects the transaction will deliver net cash proceeds of between $4.65 billion and $4.75 billion.
The Australian reported that this deal means Macquarie is buying close to 50,000km of owned and leased optic fibre cables and some submarine cables as it attempts to challenge Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) 's broadband business.
Macquarie shares its reasoning for the TPG deal
Talking to The Australian, Macquarie's infrastructure investment leader Ani Satchcroft said:
Digital infrastructure is obviously becoming increasingly critical, and the ability to serve people at scale and as well as securely and reliably is important.
Vocus has been investing organically to grow out its network, but the opportunity to buy the TPG network, just turbo-charges the Vocus offering and gives customers a good, safe, secure, scaled alternative.
The newspaper noted that Macquarie is "moving early" to take advantage of the growing digital demand, so it's making efforts to increase its exposure to the infrastructure that's enabling artificial intelligence.
The Australian also pointed out that the big US tech companies ('Magnificent Seven') are expected to invest enormously in expanding their technology and AI capabilities through capital expenditure and research and development. More than US$500 billion could be invested over the next year.
Increasing AI usage could lead to a significant increase in data demand on telco networks, such as the one that Macquarie just acquired.
Macquarie share price snapshot
Since the start of 2024, the Macquarie share price has gone up 27%.
