Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) shares are marching higher today.

Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) diversified financial stock closed yesterday trading for $225.28. In morning trade on Wednesday, shares are changing hands for $227.42 apiece, up 0.95%.

For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.3% at this same time.

This comes following overnight news that the asset manager is making a major artificial intelligence (AI) data centre investment in the United States.

Macquarie shares increase AI-linked footprint

Macquarie shares are higher after the company announced that US-based next-generation digital infrastructure company Applied Digital has entered into a US$5.0 billion (AU$8.1 billion) perpetual preferred equity financing facility.

Funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management will invest up to US$900 million to help Applied Digital fund the completion of the Ellendale High Performance Computing (HPC) data centre campus.

The agreement also gives Macquarie Asset Management the right to invest up to an additional US$4.1 billion in Applied Digital's future HPC data centre pipeline, bringing the total investment to US$5 billion.

The preferred equity will accrue a dividend at a rate of 12.75% per annum. Macquarie will also take a 15% common equity interest in Applied Digital's HPC assets.

What did management say?

Commenting on the AI-linked investment that could help boost Macquarie shares longer-term, Anton Moldan, senior managing director of Macquarie Asset Management said, "We are excited to partner with Applied Digital to build and scale its HPC data centre platform."

Moldan added:

Applied Digital has a differentiated strategy with access to a unique near-term power portfolio across North America in markets attractive for computing needs which address the most demanding AI and other HPC applications at scale.

The significant progress at the Ellendale HPC campus makes this a very compelling opportunity for us as well as for potential hyperscale customers.

With our global experience as an owner and manager of data centre platforms, we see this as highly attractive opportunity to help build an industry-leading HPC data centre company well positioned in these high growth segments of the market.

Wes Cummins, CEO of Applied Digital, said, "At today's build costs, we will have a significant portion of the equity needed to construct over 2.0 GW of HPC data centre capacity, including our Ellendale HPC Campus."

Cummins continued:

With an 85% ownership stake in both existing and future HPC assets and access to a project-level preferred equity financing facility sufficient to fund our HPC project pipeline, we believe we are poised for transformative progress."

With today's intraday moves factored in, Macquarie shares are up 23% over the past 12 months.