Data Center Investment News — 17/03/2023
Roundhouse Digital planning 10MW data center in Oregon
A new company is proposing a data center in Cascade Locks, Oregon.
First reported by OregonLive, Roundhouse Digital Infrastructure is proposing a 10MW data center targeting ‘niche government and energy industry’ clients.
Roundhouse is seeking a 25-year lease from the Cascade Locks Port Authority for a vacant industrial building and for 10 acres nearby. The company is reportedly still putting together financing and seeking customers; it aims to invest $40 million on the first building and a further $60 million in developing a second on the empty 10 acres.
Located in Hood River County, Cascade Locks is located on the Columbia River east of Portland. It is some 50 miles away from Oregon’s traditional data center hub of Hillsboro.
Colt opens new data center in Osaka, and planning new Mumbai campus
Cold Data Centre Services (Colt DCS) has launched a new 45MW data center in Osaka, Japan. The company is also planning a new 10-building, 120MW campus in Navi Mumbai, India.
First announced in 2021, Colt this week confirmed the opening of a new 45MW facility in the Keihanna area of Osaka. The company said 75 percent of the 42,000 sqm (452,000 sq ft) data center is already committed.
Niclas Sanfridsson, CEO of Colt DCS, said: “The launch of Osaka Keihanna represents a major advancement in our journey to addressing the needs of customers for a robust and scalable solution rooted in operational excellence, sustainability, and exceptional customer service.”
In July 2021, Japanese conglomerate Mitsui and investment firm Fidelity formed a joint venture to build hyperscale data centers in Japan that would be operated by Fidelity-owned Colt. Colt then announced plans for the Keinhanna facility in August of that year.
Brookfield-backed Ascenty raises $1 billion to finance data centre expansion
Ascenty has raised R$ 5.3 billion (US$1.025 billion) over a period of five years to finance further expansion of its data centre infrastructure rollout across Brazil.
The round is several million Dollars up from the original R$ 4.8 billion (US$ 925 million) round previously announced.
The transaction includes two instruments, an offshore Term Loan Facility and a debenture issuance on the local capital market.
The first was an overseas Term Loan Facility worth US$825 million, led by Itaú, Natixis, Scotiabank, Credit Agricole, Banco MUFG Brasil and Mizuho. In addition to these banks, six others joined the operation.
NTT to Launch Six Data Centers in Next Three Months in India
NTT will launch six data centers in India over the next three months, with three more in the works. Nearly 70% of the new capacity in these data centers has already been booked, according to NTT India MD Sharad Sanghi.
The company will launch six additional data centers by the end of June, bringing its total number of operating data centers in the country to 11. These new data centers will be located in Airoli and Mahape in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
A $2.5 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Davos with Maharashtra to construct data centers, subsea cables, and renewable energy plants in the state over the following five years. NTT has invested around $4.5 billion in India since 2020.
According to Abhijit Dubey, Global CEO of NTT, demand for cloud migration and services both in India and globally has been strong. Only 20% enterprise workloads have migrated to the cloud in India and globally. There’s a lot of headroom for growth. Companies are more multi-cloud today along with having their private clouds at the moment.
Samsung SDS, the IT service arm of Samsung Group, has announced its newly constructed data center in Dongtan District in Hwaseong City of Gyeonggi Province.
The country’s first facility dedicated to high-performance computing (HPC), to demonstrate the company’s power in the B2B cloud computing industry.
The company plans to increase its presence in the domestic enterprise cloud computing market by providing secure and customized cloud services tailored to the needs of business-to-business (B2B) customers that want to achieve digital transformation.
According to Hwang Sung-woo, CEO of Samsung SDS, during a press conference in Seoul, people who use cloud computing services well receive a lot of benefits, but those who are not used to it experience inconvenience.
Morrison & Co in talks for $3 billion acquisition of UK data centre platform
New Zealand’s alternative asset manager HRL Morrison & Co. is said to be mulling the acquisition of UK hosting operator Ark Data Centres.
The report comes after months of market rumours surrounding Ark’s exit strategy. A potential sale could fetch as much as £2.5 billion, or US$3 billion, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg.
The people said Morrison & Co. is one of the final bidders for the data centre business, funded by Elliott Investment Management.
Those familiar with the matter added that there are “several other suitors interested” in the brand.
Digital Edge planning data center in downtown Tokyo
Digital Edge is planning a new data center in Tokyo, Japan.
The Singapore-based operator this week announced it has entered into a partnership with real estate developer Hulic to develop a carrier-neutral facility in downtown Tokyo.
To be located at 7-1 Nihonbashi Kobunacho, the new TYO7 facility will be sited less than 300m from the company’s existing TYO2 facility (formerly known as ComSpace I) and is expected to be Ready-for-Service in early 2025.
Specifications of the new facility were not shared. According to a Hulic release, the two companies have formed a joint venture known as DEH1 Co., Ltd for the development, known as the ‘Kobunacho Project.’
Layer 9 exploring options for second project in Central America
Layer 9 Data Centers is reportedly looking to expand into Central America for its next development.
BNAmericas reports that the company is prospecting land in several Latin American countries for its second project, at the request of its customers.
“Right now, we’re looking in Costa Rica, Uruguay, Panama for sites to buy land to do our second project,” CEO and co-founder Michael Ortiz told the publication. “We’re thinking of doing this in the next 18 months.”
The company is reportedly looking to buy land in just one of the three countries and is working with the Newmark group. The expansion is at the behest of an unnamed hyperscale client.
Data center campus planned outside Bergamo, Italy
Local real estate firm Vitali is planning a new data center outside Bergamo in Italy.
Italian local press reports the Municipality of Arcene in northern Italy is in discussions with Vitali s.p.a. to develop a new data center campus.
Arcene is a commune in the Bergamo principality in the Lombardy region. The ‘Innovation Hub’ will span 181,000 sqm (1.95 million sq ft) of currently greenfield agricultural land close to the former ‘Tre Cantoni’ quarry. Construction is reportedly due to start in 2024.
The site is owned by Vitali s.p.a., which had previously aimed to use the land for an aggregate quarry.
Thor Equities rebrands data centre arm as it targets $9 billion in acquisitions
Private equity house Thor Equities Group has rebranded its hyperscale data centre division, Thor Digital, as Form8tion Data Centers.
The launch was announced in a LinkedIn post by co-founder Simon Burrage, who has served as chief executive of Thor Digital and now takes on the same role at London-based Form8tion.
Burrage, who has previously held the role of CEO at Crown Hosting Data Centres and Commercial Director at Ark Data Centres, said: “I am pleased and excited to announce that my team and I have been working hard to develop a new brand, for our data centre platform Form8tion Data Centers.
“I am looking forward to steering this venture as Chief Executive Officer and am joined by my colleague [and co-founder] Roy Gibbens as CRO. We have already secured additional board hires, which I will reveal shortly.”
DigitalBridge’s subsidiary appoints ex-Oracle executive as new head
DigitalBridge-backed Scala Data Centers has appointed ex-Oracle executive Mark Sanchez as its new Senior Director of Data Center Deployment.
Sanchez, who will be based in São Paulo, has more than 20 years of mission-critical experience with 13 years dedicated to the data centre industry, having participated in the deployment of more than 400MW of capacity worldwide.
At Oracle, he worked on key projects to expand the cloud capillarity of the company, going from five to 40 regions when he held the position of Senior Manager of Data Center New Region Build in the US, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa markets.
He was also Principal Technical Program Manager for Data Center Build, responsible for infrastructure deployment and delivery in 10 countries, as well as the colocation, construction, and cabling teams.
PE-backed EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure appoints new CEO as $4 billion equity backs new business
Privately held EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure‘s board of directors has elected data centre industry veteran Lee Kestler as its new CEO, effective immediately.
Kestler succeeds Tom Ray, who served as co-founder and CEO for more than five years. EdgeCore builds and operators data centres. The roll out is supported by committed equity to fund an initial aggregate amount of over US$4 billion in development.
In November 2022, EdgeCore was acquired by private markets firm Partners Group, acting on behalf of its clients.
Kestler has been tasked with driving Partners Group’s commitment to invest up to US$1.2 billion to fund the acquisition and buildout of existing and future data centre sites.
Brazil’s Eveo launches new data center in Paraná
Brazilian colocation firm Eveo has launched a new data center in the state of Paraná. The company this week announced its new facility in Curitiba, known as PR1, has gone live.
“Meet Eveo’s new data center. With infrastructure located in strategic regions of the country, now, in addition to São Paulo, we also have a data center in Paraná, to offer our customers a service with a high level of quality, safety, and performance,” the company said.
Specifications for the new facility weren’t shared, but Eveo said it was built to Tier III standards.
Originally launched in 1998 as PointNet, Eveo offers colocation, hosting, disaster recovery, and managed services. This is the company’s second on-premise data center operated by the company, with one in operation in São Paulo.