QTS Founder Chad Williams Launches New Data Center Firm QII One Year After $3B Blackstone Buyout
May 7, 2026
QTS Founder Chad Williams Launches New Data Center Firm QII One Year After $3B Blackstone Buyout
Just over a year after accepting a $3 billion buyout to depart from the data center giant he built over two decades, former QTS CEO Chad Williams is launching a new digital infrastructure development company. The venture, named QII, aims to develop gigawatt-scale campuses for data centers, advanced manufacturing, and other energy-intensive industries, signaling a major new player in the rapidly evolving digital infrastructure landscape.
QII, an acronym for Quality Infratech Intelligence and pronounced “Q-2,” is being launched through Williams’ family office, Quality Growth Cos. In an interview with Bisnow, Williams described the new firm as a “second chapter” following his departure from Blackstone-owned QTS in spring 2025. His exit from QTS came nearly a year after Blackstone acquired the company in a $10 billion take-private deal in 2021, and at a time when QTS was recognized as North America’s largest data center landlord. Reports at the time suggested Williams’ departure was prompted by clashes with Blackstone and other senior leaders over the company’s direction, though Williams declined to discuss specifics, noting only that the experience has directly informed his strategy for QII.
Williams insists QII is not simply a continuation of the QTS model. Instead, the new company is centered on a vision of vertically integrated digital infrastructure ecosystems. He envisions campuses where artificial intelligence data centers enable the build-out of advanced manufacturing and other AI-reliant industries, bringing together technology and infrastructure at scales never before required. “There’s demand coming that’s not just AI factories, it is industrial infrastructure, where technology and infrastructure come together at scales that have never been needed or required before for this next generation,” Williams said. “We won’t be able to do that on every campus because there has to be land available, and sometimes you have enough for one or the other. But where you can gather those resources together, I think this will be unique.”
While QII has yet to unveil specific projects or sites, Williams anticipates multiple announcements by the end of 2026 once those projects are “certain and moving forward.” The firm is focusing on nontraditional data center locations outside of primary markets, a strategy Williams said he executed successfully at QTS by developing major facilities in cities like Atlanta and Richmond before they became major digital infrastructure hubs. “I’ve gone sometimes where people have not thought to go or not been able to go, for whatever reason, and I think you should see that to be a consistent path going forward,” Williams said. “There may be a couple announcements where people go, ‘Oh, geez, why didn’t I think of that?’”
In a notable departure from many developers building gigawatt-scale campuses, QII is currently “committed to a grid-only strategy” for power, according to Williams. This approach relies on deep relationships with utilities to secure grid capacity, a capability he believes sets QII apart from new entrants. Rich Voorberg, the former president of Siemens Energy North America, will lead QII’s energy strategy. “I think people will be surprised that there are pockets of real capacity left,” Williams said. “We’re going to go take those opportunities on so that our customers have the benefit and security and resiliency to be connected like they need to be and want to be.”
At least initially, QII is being funded entirely by Williams’ Quality Growth Cos. family office, with no outside sponsors or investors. Williams said the company is not currently fundraising, though capital partners may eventually be brought on board. This cautious approach to outside capital is heavily informed by the tumultuous end of his tenure at QTS. While Blackstone’s backing provided unprecedented resources to fuel QTS’s expansion, it also forced changes to the company’s development strategy, operating philosophy, and culture that Williams had spent years cultivating. “We’re just not going to be in a position this time like I did the first time,” Williams told Bisnow. “We’re going to be very careful this time about where we take capital, how we take capital, and how does that capital influence the business decisions that we make.”
Source: bisnow
