Private Equity Deals 2026: Blackstone's $5B Google AI Venture, KKR's DCC Bid & the Week's Key Moves

May 27, 2026 • Weekly PE Deal Review • 8 min read

This week in private equity deals 2026, the headlines were dominated by Blackstone’s landmark $5 billion joint venture with Google Cloud to build AI infrastructure, while KKR and Energy Capital Partners weighed a sweetened bid for Irish energy group DCC after their initial €5.72 billion offer was rejected. Elsewhere, Providence Equity Partners began preparations for a potential £4 billion-plus sale of theatre giant ATG Entertainment, and two specialist healthcare investors — GHO Capital and CBC Group — announced a blockbuster merger creating a $21 billion platform. On the fundraising front, EQT confirmed the final close of BPEA IX at $15.6 billion, making it the largest Asia-Pacific private equity fund ever raised. Here is our weekly analysis of the deals, exits, and strategic moves shaping the global PE landscape.

🌐 Deal of the Week: Blackstone × Google Cloud — A $5 Billion Bet on AI Infrastructure

Blackstone announced a strategic joint venture with Google Cloud to create a new U.S.-based company offering compute-as-a-service powered by Google’s proprietary Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), with an initial equity commitment of $5 billion. The venture, unveiled on May 18, will be led by Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a 22-year Google engineering veteran, and aims to bring 500 MW of capacity online by 2027 with plans to scale significantly thereafter. This is not merely a data center play — it represents a fundamental shift in how alternative asset managers are positioning themselves at the intersection of physical infrastructure and next-generation AI compute. By partnering directly with Google rather than competing with hyperscalers, Blackstone is securing a privileged position in the AI value chain while deploying capital into long-duration, contracted revenue streams.

Why it matters for allocators: The deal signals that the largest PE firms are moving beyond traditional buyouts to create entirely new asset classes. For LPs and wealth managers, AI infrastructure is emerging as a distinct allocation category — one that combines the yield characteristics of infrastructure with the growth profile of technology. Blackstone’s ability to write a $5 billion equity check from its own funds underscores the scale advantages that mega-managers enjoy in accessing these opportunities.

⚡ Major Private Equity Deals 2026: Transactions This Week

KKR & Energy Capital Partners Eye Sweetened Bid for DCC (€5.7B+)

KKR and Energy Capital Partners are working with advisers to determine how much to increase their offer for Irish energy distributor DCC, after the company’s board unanimously rejected their initial £58-per-share proposal (£4.95 billion / €5.72 billion) on April 29. The consortium has until June 10 to table a revised bid under a deadline set by the Irish Takeover Panel. The original offer represented only an 8% premium to DCC’s share price — well below the 20-30% typically expected in take-private transactions. DCC’s diversified energy distribution and healthcare businesses, combined with its exposure to the European energy transition, make it an attractive target for infrastructure-focused sponsors seeking stable, regulated cash flows.

Providence Equity Prepares ATG Entertainment for £4B+ Exit

Providence Equity Partners has engaged advisers to explore a sale of British theatre operator ATG Entertainment at a potential valuation exceeding £4 billion ($5.38 billion). ATG operates more than 70 venues across the UK, the US, Germany, and Spain, welcoming over 18 million visitors annually, with marquee productions including The Lion King, Wicked, and The Book of Mormon. Providence acquired control of ATG in 2013 for approximately £350 million, meaning a £4 billion exit would represent a roughly 11x return on invested capital. An auction process could launch in the second half of 2026, though timing remains fluid. Blackstone reportedly acquired a minority stake in 2024, adding another layer of sponsor interest.

GHO Capital & CBC Group Merge to Create $21B Healthcare Giant

London-based GHO Capital and Singapore-based CBC Group announced plans to merge, creating the world’s largest dedicated healthcare investment firm with over $21 billion in assets under management and more than 200 professionals across 13 offices. The combined entity will be co-led by CBC CEO Wei Fu and GHO co-founder Mike Mortimer, with the transaction expected to close in early 2027 subject to regulatory approvals. The new platform will invest across pharma, medical devices, life science tools, diagnostics, healthcare infrastructure, and healthcare IT. This merger reflects a broader trend of GP consolidation, as specialist managers seek scale to compete with mega-funds for increasingly large healthcare opportunities.

Medallia Restructuring — Thoma Bravo’s $5.1B Equity Wipeout

The reverberations from Thoma Bravo’s decision to transfer control of experience-management software provider Medallia to its creditors continued to shape sentiment this week. Originally acquired for $6.4 billion in 2021, the restructuring effectively erases approximately $5.1 billion in equity value — one of the largest impairments in software buyout history. The creditor group taking control includes Blackstone (holding $1.5 billion in debt), KKR, Apollo Global Management, and Antares Capital. With annual debt-servicing costs of nearly $300 million against estimated earnings of $200 million, the math simply no longer worked. The Medallia saga underscores the risks of highly leveraged software buyouts in an environment of persistent rate pressure and AI-driven disruption to pricing power.

Hg Spins Out €500M of Visma Assets into Luxembourg Vehicle

Software-focused private equity firm Hg transferred approximately €500 million of assets from its €19 billion platform Visma into a newly created Luxembourg-based entity called Norvato. The restructuring involves around 30 Visma subsidiaries and includes participation from co-investors such as Intermediate Capital Group. Originally conceived as part of IPO preparations that have since been put on hold, the spinout is being characterized as an internal reorganization. For allocators, it signals creative portfolio management by continuation-fund-style structures when traditional exit windows remain constrained.

💰 Fundraising & Strategic Moves

EQT Closes Record $15.6B Asia-Pacific Fund (BPEA IX)

EQT confirmed the final close of BPEA Private Equity Fund IX at its hard cap of $15.6 billion in total commitments, making it the largest Asia-Pacific-dedicated private equity fund ever raised. The fund attracted over 75 new investors, with more than 90% of existing LPs reinvesting. BPEA IX is currently 5-10% invested in early opportunities. The achievement is all the more notable given that capital raised for Asian PE funds fell to a 12-year low in 2025 after four consecutive years of decline.

Allocator takeaway: EQT’s success in raising record capital against a challenging Asian fundraising backdrop reinforces the flight to quality among LPs. For CGPs and family offices evaluating Asia-Pacific exposure, the concentration of capital in a single fund raises both opportunity (access to the region’s best deals) and risk (single-manager concentration) considerations.

Lauxera Capital Partners — €520M European Healthtech Fund II

Lauxera Capital Partners announced the final close of its second fund at €520 million, nearly doubling the size of its debut vehicle and surpassing its €500 million hard cap in under 18 months. The fund targets 12-15 investments of €20-50 million each across commercial-stage healthtech companies, including medical devices, digital health, healthcare data, and life science tools. Early investments include Acandis (German neurovascular devices) and Antaros Medical (Swedish pharmaceutical imaging). Over 90% of existing LPs reinvested.

Barings Raises $19B+ for Global Direct Lending

Alternative investment major Barings surpassed $19 billion in committed capital for its Global Direct Lending strategy after a two-year fundraise, underscoring sustained institutional appetite for private credit even as concerns mount about underwriting standards and convergence among the largest lenders.

Eurazeo — €1B+ First Close for Elevate V

French investment firm Eurazeo raised more than €1 billion at the first close of Elevate V, the fifth fund from its lower mid-market private equity arm. The fund targets European companies with enterprise values between €50 million and €300 million, continuing Eurazeo’s strategy of backing growth companies in technology, healthcare, and financial services.

📊 Week in Numbers

$5B — Blackstone’s initial equity commitment to the Google Cloud AI infrastructure joint venture

$15.6B — EQT’s BPEA IX final close, the largest Asia-Pacific PE fund ever raised

$21B — Combined AUM of the GHO Capital × CBC Group healthcare mega-merger

$5.1B — Estimated equity value erased in the Medallia restructuring

£4B+ — Potential valuation of ATG Entertainment in Providence Equity’s planned exit

€520M — Lauxera Capital’s Fund II close, nearly 2x its debut vehicle

🔍 Our Take: What to Watch

1. AI infrastructure as a new PE asset class. Blackstone’s Google Cloud JV is a bellwether. Expect other mega-managers to follow with similar partnerships, creating a distinct infrastructure-meets-technology allocation category. The key question for allocators: are these genuinely differentiated investments, or are sponsors repackaging data center exposure with an AI premium?

2. GP consolidation accelerates in healthcare. The GHO-CBC merger to create a $21 billion platform is part of a broader trend of specialist GPs combining to achieve the scale needed to compete for large-cap healthcare deals. Allocators should monitor whether consolidation delivers better returns or simply larger fee pools.

3. Software buyout reckoning far from over. The Medallia transfer to creditors is unlikely to be the last high-profile software restructuring. With many 2021-2022 vintage software LBOs still carrying unsustainable leverage, allocators with exposure to these vintages should be stress-testing their portfolios against further write-downs, particularly for companies facing AI-driven pricing compression.

📚 Sources

Blackstone JV: Blackstone Press Release & CNBC, May 19, 2026

KKR / DCC: Bloomberg & Irish Times, May 19, 2026

ATG Entertainment: Reuters & Private Equity Wire, May 20, 2026

GHO x CBC Group: Bloomberg & Financial Times, May 20-21, 2026

Medallia / Thoma Bravo: Investing.com & HedgeCo Insights, April-May 2026

Hg / Visma: Private Equity Wire, May 2026

EQT BPEA IX: EQT Group Press Release, April 20, 2026

Lauxera Capital: BusinessWire & Fierce Biotech, May 19, 2026

Barings & Eurazeo: AltAssets & Private Equity Wire, May 2026

Ropes & Gray: U.S. Private Equity Market Recap, May 2026

⚠️ Disclaimer

This article is published by AirFund for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument. AirFund is registered as a Conseil en Investissement Financier (CIF) in France with ORIAS. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The information contained in this article is based on sources considered reliable, but no representation or warranty is made as to its accuracy or completeness. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult their professional advisors before making any investment decision. Private equity investments carry significant risks, including illiquidity, long holding periods, and potential loss of capital.