Bank of America unveiled a $250 billion initiative to invest in critical infrastructure across the U.S. over the next year, joining its peers pushing for innovation across the country.
The investment is intended for projects including data centers and compute power, renewable-power generation, energy storage, natural gas, electricity transmission and critical minerals and mining. The goal is to support energy security, job growth and economic competitiveness, the bank said in a statement on August 12.
“Without hard infrastructure, it’s difficult to preserve our competitiveness and leadership for the next generation,” said Karen Fang, global head of infrastructure and sustainable finance and co-head of global capital solutions, in an interview. “Old infrastructure has to be modernized.”
It’s the latest in a string of infrastructure initiatives across U.S. banks. Morgan Stanley recently announced its own $1.5 trillion pledge to help with capital raising, financing and advisory over the next decade. The U.S. is coping with aging infrastructure as it also embarks on a massive buildout of artificial-intelligence data-center capacity, which is straining the power grid in places. The Bank of America pledge isn’t limited to the AI frenzy, focusing on sectors such as transportation and water systems as well.
The initiative is in addition to an earlier commitment by the bank to back $1.5 trillion of sustainable-finance projects by 2030. Last year, larger competitor JPMorgan Chase & Co. vowed to funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster U.S. economic security and resiliency over the coming decade.
Bank of America’s commitment is in honor of the country’s 250th birthday, with capital deployed through July 4 of next year. The target includes loans from Bank of America’s balance sheet and transactions the company arranges or advises on.
“This is our statement that we are making that infrastructure investing is a uniting theme,” Fang said.
