The infrastructure market, once considered a relatively low-tech asset class, is awash in high-tech. Of course, technological innovation has always played a part in infrastructure, but the emergence and adoption of various forms of technology in recent years is fundamentally reshaping the market. The influence of technology in infrastructure has been the topic of many conferences, studies and articles in recent years, but it is finally impacting investment strategies.

“There has been a shift,” says Alastair Green, senior partner and global leader of McKinsey & Co.’s infrastructure team and leader in the private equity and principal investors practice. “The question when assessing various investment strategies is increasingly, ‘How can I buy traditional infrastructure assets, apply new technology to make them greener and more efficient, and then incorporate that new technology into greenfield developments to build a portfolio?’”

First, some definitions