Sam Rudik

A Partner in the Firm’s New York office, Sam Rudik regularly represents private equity firms and their portfolio companies on a broad range of real estate and digital infrastructure transactions across a variety of asset classes, including data centers, logistics, hospitality and multifamily.

Sam has a particular focus on data centers and other AI infrastructure, having advised on over $125 billion of data center transactions since 2021, including numerous acquisitions, sales, joint ventures and debt financings. He has played a central role in several of the industry’s most significant transactions, helping shape the direction of the data center market. His clients include Blackstone and its portfolio companies (including QTS and AirTrunk), CoreWeave, Vantage Data Centers, Cerberus, CIM Group and its portfolio company Novva Data Centers, Town Lane and others.

Sam was recognized as a Law360 “Rising Star” in Real Estate in 2024.

Sam’s representative transactions include:

Data Centers and AI Infrastructure

• Blackstone in numerous transactions, including its (i) $16.1 billion acquisition of AirTrunk, the largest data center platform in APAC, (ii) $16 billion debt and equity financing of Related Digital’s Oracle data center project in Saline Township, Michigan, (iii) $10 billion acquisition of QTS Data Centers, (iv) $7 billion joint venture with Digital Realty to develop hyperscale data centers in the U.S. and Europe, and subsequent sale to Digital Realty of Blackstone’s interest in a subset of the portfolio at a gross value of $7.8 billion, (v) acquisition of a significant minority stake in Rowan Digital Infrastructure, one of the fastest growing US hyperscale data center developers, and (vi) initial public offering of Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, a newly organized company focused on acquiring and owning stabilized data centers
• Data center developer in connection with its YieldCo recapitalization of a $1.5 billion portfolio of stabilized hyperscale data centers
• Neocloud in connection with its joint venture with a private equity sponsor to develop a $1.2 billion hyperscale data center
• Private equity sponsor in connection with multiple joint ventures with a data center developer for the development of over $10 billion of hyperscale data center campuses across the US
• Private equity sponsor in connection with its $800 million forward sale acquisition of a hyperscale data center
• Town Lane in connection with its joint venture with PowerHouse to develop a 300 MW data center campus
• CIM Group and its portfolio company Novva Data Centers in connection a $2 billion construction loan from JPMorgan and Starwood Property Trust to develop a 175 MW data center campus
• DataBank in connection with the formation of a joint venture with Goodman Group for the development and operation of a data center facility in Vernon, California
• QTS Data Centers in connection with over $40 billion of project financings for hyperscale data centers
• Data center developer in connection with its $700 million construction financing of a hyperscale data center
• Data center developer in connection with its $732 million CMBS financing of a hyperscale data center

Other Asset Classes

• Blackstone in numerous transactions, including its (i) $12.8 billion acquisition of American Campus Communities, (ii) $5.9 billion acquisition of Colony Industrial, the industrial operating platform of Colony Capital, (iii) $4.6 billion acquisition of the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay in a joint venture with MGM Growth Properties, and subsequent sale of Blackstone’s interest to VICI Properties and (iv) $3.9 billion acquisition of the Aria Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa
• KKR in connection with its acquisition of an $860 million portfolio of multifamily assets
• KSL in connection with its acquisition of Hersha Hospitality Trust
• Private equity sponsor in connection with the acquisition of a $1.2 billion portfolio of multifamily assets
• Private equity sponsor in connection with the acquisition of a $900 million portfolio of logistics assets
• Private equity sponsor in connection with the acquisition of a $820 million portfolio of logistics assets

Sam received his J.D., with honors, in 2016 from the University of Chicago Law School. He received his B.A. in Economics in 2012 from the University of Florida.