Blackstone’s Sean Klimczak on AI, leadership and the future of infrastructure

Sean Klimczak (BBA ’98) was a first-generation college student with little idea what a career in investing entailed when he arrived at the University of Notre Dame. Today, he is the global head of infrastructure at Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, with more than

$1.3 trillion in assets under management.

Dean Martijn J. Cremers welcomed Klimczak back to the Mendoza College of Business on Sept. 11 for a fireside chat, part of the Dean’s Speaker Series. During the conversation, Klimczak described his path from Notre Dame to his 22-year career at Blackstone and spoke about the rise of infrastructure investing, the role of energy in the artificial intelligence transformation and how investments can serve as a force multiplier for good.

After starting his career in investment banking and private equity, Klimczak joined Blackstone in 2005, co-founding Blackstone Energy Transition Partners in 2011 and founding the firm's dedicated infrastructure business in 2017. Under his leadership, Blackstone’s infrastructure platform has grown into the world's largest private equity fund, maintaining a track record of gross annual returns exceeding 25% without losing capital on any infrastructure investment.

 

1. The importance of saying “yes”

“I was the beneficiary of a lot of people giving me a hand up,” Klimczak said. “A lot of people helped me along the way, and I said ‘yes’ at those different points in time.”

He recalled saying “yes” to learning more about investment banking during a tax internship. He said “yes” to work with a Notre Dame alum at Morgan Stanley in Chicago when many of his peers were moving to New York City. At Blackstone, he said “yes” to working in the unfamiliar energy and infrastructure industry.

Klimczak credited much of his career trajectory to mentorship and taking calculated chances. He pointed to Mendoza’s Applied Investment Management (AIM) course as the catalyst that opened his eyes to investing with real capital, not just theoretical portfolios or classroom simulations.
 

2. Thematic platform investing and the private wealth horizon

Klimczak addressed the evolution of infrastructure investing and how his investment philosophy has transformed over 30 years, shifting away from buying distressed assets toward acquiring leading companies that can serve as platforms for growth, then investing significant capital to expand them.

“Long-term investment success relies on identifying secular megatrends [such as AI growth or cloud migration] and continuously deploying capital into market-leading platforms rather than attempting to fix broken, low-valuation companies,” Klimczak said. “For us, a lot of it is getting into good ‘neighborhoods’ early, and then usually good things happen in good neighborhoods.”

Klimczak described infrastructure through what he calls the "DIY" framework:

• Diversification: Low correlation to traditional bonds and real estate, and only about 60% correlation to public equities.
• Inflation protection: Tangible, hard assets and concessions that perform well during high inflation.
• Yield: Consistent payouts with an average dividend yield of roughly 4%.

Klimczak identified private wealth as the next growth wave for alternative assets. While institutional investors allocate roughly 35% of their capital to private equity and alternatives, individual wealth allocations to alternatives sit at just 2% to 3%, creating an expansion opportunity.

 

3. AI and power supply demand

Klimczak described artificial intelligence as the “megatrend of megatrends,” the Industrial Revolution of our era. Major tech “hyperscalers” are deploying roughly $800 billion — nearly 3% of U.S. GDP — into computing capacity this year alone.

Yet scaling AI infrastructure has a bottleneck: power. While physical data center construction takes 18 to 24 months, securing grid power can take up to seven years due to two decades of stagnant growth in power demand across the U.S.

“Five percent of the cost of building the data center is the power, but it's 100% of the bottleneck,” Klimczak said.

An AI search query can require 10 times the power of a standard web search, so acquiring stable, massive-scale power generation is the single most important enabler of AI deployment. This supply-demand gap has led to investments in co-locating dedicated power plants directly next to data facilities.
 

4. A new social compact for responsible infrastructure

“Business is the single greatest force multiplier in the world for driving positive impact,” he said.

Klimczak cited examples of that, ranging from hydroelectric projects that double national power grids to utility partnerships that lower regional consumer energy bills. It also means infrastructure developers have a responsibility toward host communities. To solve growing community and environmental concerns about rapid data center development, Klimczak outlined his social compact for responsible infrastructure:

1. Net-additional power: Developers must build or source new power generation to avoid draining existing grid resources from consumers.
2. Consumer savings: Projects should help lower local residential utility bills through tax contributions and efficiency gains.
3. Zero water usage: Facilities must eliminate or minimize industrial water consumption by using closed-loop cooling systems.
4. Direct community investment: Developers must provide direct funding and infrastructure enhancements to support local tax bases, municipal services and public safety.

 

5. Career wisdom in a SNAP

Finally, Klimczak offered advice to Notre Dame students preparing to enter the professional world. He encouraged graduates to view the first three to five years after college as a "paid extension of undergrad," a period focused on steep learning curves, concise communication and hard work.

When evaluating prospective hires, Klimczak looks for four traits he summed up as SNAP:

• Smart: Sharp intellect and problem-solving capability.
• Nice: Strong interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence.
• Ambitious: Drive to continually tackle unstructured challenges.
• Positive: Optimism and resilience, especially under pressure.

“Your professional success is the product of three things: your intellect, your attitude and your effort,” Klimczak said. “From an attitude perspective, you are defined by how you are on your worst day.”