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Every time you ask a question of your AI assistant, it gets sent to a data center, where the response is generated before getting sent back to you. These data centers are critical to the AI revolution. The biggest data-center campuses occupy dozens of acres, span millions of square feet, and cost billions of dollars.

And they wouldn’t exist without the work of lawyers. For insight into the complex transactions that bring these data centers into existence, I interviewed Steven Messina, a longtime partner at Skadden Arps and global head of the firm’s banking group (soon to be renamed the finance group, reflecting the evolution of the sector beyond commercial banks).

In our conversation, Steve and I discussed how these billion-dollar data centers get financed. But we covered a number of other topics as well, including the evolution of both the finance industry and Biglaw over the past three decades. If you’re interested in technology, business, or law, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Show Notes:

* Steven Messina bio, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

* Hyperscaler Data Centers: Financing Solutions for Large-Scale Projects, by Steven Messina, Aryan Moniri, David L. Nagler, and Jared S. Dub

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