The Distillery: Google & Blackstone's New Datacentres and the UK's Tokenisation Plans

May 2026

Telecoms & Connectivity

Juniper Research

Analyst House

In case you missed it, our inaugural Future Digital Awards for Identity & Security 2026 just opened for nominations!

Think you have what it takes to be among the first winners of this brand new category? Get your application in before the 7th August deadline by applying online now - entry is free!

In this edition:

• Google & Blackstone announce a datacentre partnership which could challenge NVIDIA's GPU dominance in the AI space.
• Tokenisation moves closer to mainstream financial infrastructure in the UK, as the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority seek input on plans to safely adopt this technology.
• SoftBank's Telco Cloud AI vision could offer new revenue streams to network operators as AI continues to shake up the industry.
• Our Merchant Payments Insights Series kicks off with a free whitepaper on the opportunities and challenges presented by the increasingly fragmented payment options available.

IT & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Google & Blackstone Announce Datacentre Plans

On the 18th May 2026, Google and Blackstone announced a joint venture to create a new US-based company offering datacentre capacity, operations, networking, and Google Cloud’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) as a Compute-as-a-Service (CaaS) offering. 

The project will rely on an initial $5 billion in equity capital from Blackstone, whilst Google supplies hardware, including its TPUs, which are custom chips purpose-built for AI. The joint venture expects to bring the first 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity online in 2027, with plans to scale - significantly - over time.

Distilled…

🟣 The Google-Blackstone joint venture externalises hyperscaler capital expenditure (CapEx) to private capital for the first time at this scale, with Blackstone taking majority equity while Google retains the TPU supply relationship. Big Tech AI infrastructure spend is set to clear $700 billion in 2026; marking a structural shift where financing the physical layer of AI moves off hyperscaler balance sheets and into private equity-backed operating companies. It is likely that more hyperscalers will follow the same game plan.

🟣 TPU CaaS to rival NVIDIA’s graphics processing unit (GPU) dominance for the first time, as CoreWeave - a specialised cloud provider of high-performance GPU infrastructure - fell more than 10% on the announcement of the joint venture. The broader neocloud category could face margin pressure as a non-NVIDIA accelerator alternative becomes commercially available outside Google Cloud itself.

🟣 NVIDIA’s export controls are squeezing GPU access across Southeast Asia and the Gulf. As a result, a commercially available TPU platform could become a meaningful alternative for markets that are hungry for AI compute but locked out of the supply chain. A TPU-native CaaS offering, backed by Blackstone’s capital and Google’s silicon stack, could represent a credible alternative procurement pathway. However, the current US-only framing could limit this opportunity for the joint venture in the near term. The question is whether Google is willing to internationalise TPU access. 

MORE TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTS

⚛️ Post-quantum Cryptography (PQC): 27% of Businesses Globally to Deploy PQC by 2035, Driven by Crypto-agility [Research]

🌍 The Iran Ceasefire Might Stabilise the Middle East — But Can the AI Boom Recover? [Blog]

🤖 Key Growth Opportunities for Physical AI in 2026 [Whitepaper]

FINTECH & PAYMENTS

Shared Tokenisation Vision Set Out by BoE and FCA

The Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have set a deadline of 3 July 2026 for responses to their call for views on how to best support the safe adoption of tokenisation in the UK wholesale financial markets. The call for input is aimed at firms operating across the wholesale financial markets ecosystem, including banks, investment firms, financial market infrastructure providers, trading venues, and fintech and technology firms that are developing tokenisation solutions. After the deadline has passed, the FCA will hold workshops, publish a response statement, and publish a full cross-authority roadmap later in 2026.

The announcement signifies that the BoE and FCA view tokenisation as a manner in which the wholesale market can be made more efficient, cheaper, and faster, whilst retaining a strong focus on security and financial stability. Furthermore, it shows a desire to move tokenisation from experimentation toward a clearer, more scalable market framework.

Distilled…

🟣 Tokenisation is a practical market upgrade: Tokenisation is proving to be more than just a crypto trend. Regulators define it as a digital representation of real-world assets on a ledger, and frame it as a tool that should be used to streamline issuance, management, and settlement. The important takeaway here is that it is not being treated as a replacement to existing market structures, but as a way to modernise it instead.

🟣 Firms want more regulatory certainty. The BoE and FCA explicitly state that the industry has asked for clearer guidance as tokenisation grows. This is especially apparent surrounding prudential treatment, tokenised collateral, and settlement instruments. Without clearer guidance, firms may be hesitant to invest at scale.

🟣 Regulators are signalling for adjustment to existing rules. Tokenisation is being assessed as something that might require rule changes or interpretive guidance, rather than being forced into a framework designed for tradition paper and account-based systems. Crucially, regulators are not claiming the current rules are obsolete, but are openly testing whether these rules present significant friction points, and where this may occur.

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MORE PAYMENTS INSIGHTS

🌍 Cross-border Payment Transactions to Hit $63 Trillion by 2030 Globally, as Cross-border eCommerce Scales Rapidly [New Research]

💵 Agentic Commerce Set to Generate $1.5 Trillion Globally by 2030, as Payments Infrastructure Leaders Revealed [New Research]

💲AWS, Coinbase & Stripe Push Agentic Commerce Closer to Reality [Blog]

🛒 What Adyen’s €750m Talon.One Deal Says About the Future of Commerce [Blog]

TELECOMS & CONNECTIVITY

AI Is Reshaping Telecoms Faster Than 5G Ever Did

Image source: SoftBank

SoftBank recently announced its ‘Telco AI Cloud’ vision; a strategy focused on transforming telecom networks into AI-ready infrastructure capable of enabling secure, low-latency AI inference for industrial applications requiring real-time processing. The announcement reflects a growing shift within the telecommunications industry towards AI-driven connectivity, edge computing, and premium low-latency network services. 

Developments within the Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite market are also helping to reduce communication delays further; creating additional opportunities for partnerships between telco operators and satellite providers. However, the market is also becoming increasingly competitive, with hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services continuing to expand their influence across cloud, AI, and edge computing ecosystems.

Distilled…

🟣 AI is creating a major strategic turning point for the telco industry. The growth of AI-driven applications, edge computing, and low-latency services could enable telecom operators to move beyond traditional connectivity models and unlock new, high-value revenue streams.

🟣 Operators are beginning to commercialise AI-focused network services. Companies such as SoftBank are already investing in low-latency AI infrastructure and edge computing solutions designed to support real-time industrial AI applications.

🟣 Hyperscalers pose a growing competitive threat to traditional telcos. As Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services increasingly dominate cloud, AI, and edge ecosystems, telecom operators risk becoming commoditised connectivity providers whilst hyperscalers capture the most profitable areas of the AI value chain.

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MORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INSIGHTS

📱 AI Will Monetise 5G By Making It Cheaper [Blog]

🛰️Direct-to-Cell: How Can Mobile Network Operators Maximise Their Return on Investment? [Blog]

📨 Social Media Messaging Users to Reach 4.3 Billion Globally by 2027; Offering Unique Advantages to Enterprises [New Research]

MERCHANT PAYMENTS INSIGHTS SERIES

Opportunities & Challenges in a Fragmented Market

Giving consumers more ways to pay should make checkout easier. In reality, it’s making decisions harder for merchants and the providers supporting them. 

That's why we're spending the next few months digging into this rapidly evolving industry, exploring how consumer expectations around payment methods are evolving, why merchants are rethinking their checkout optimisation, and what service providers need to do to minimise friction in the payment process.

We're kickstarting our Merchant Payments Insights Series with a free whitepaper, Merchant Payments: Opportunities & Challenges in a Fragmented Market, and we'll be showcasing our latest findings in this area right here in the Distillery, and on LinkedIn. Make sure you're subscribed and following us to make sure you don't miss a thing!

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FUTURE DIGITAL AWARDS

The Future Digital Awards for Identity & Security Are Now Open! 🏆

Our brand-new Future Digital Awards for Identity & Security 2026 are now open for nominations until 7th August.

These new industry awards aim to recognise both the trailblazers and the market leaders driving the dynamic cybersecurity and digital identity markets; ranging from Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money Laundering (AML) to post-quantum cryptography, and biometric security.

Enter for free by filling in the entry form on the website - Good luck!

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