Data Center Investment News — 19/05/2023
UK’s Kao Data to anchor $440m data centre campus in Manchester, first outside London region
UK-based high-performance data center operator Kao Data has unveiled plans to build a new 40-megawatt (MW) data center in Manchester, breaking away from being solely based in the British capital region.
The new location is the first of several to come across other Tier II cities, with the next wave of CAPEX expected to occur in Central Europe.
The 39,000 square meter Manchester data center campus build-out is being backed by the operator’s current investors Legal & General Capital, Infratil, and Goldacre – Noé Group.
The 40MW project which will boast nine data halls will take over an ex-industrial site at Kenwood Point.
3D printed data center being built in Germany
A 3D printed building in Heidelberg, Germany, is set to be used as a data center.
Cloud and data center provider Heidelberg IT Management announced this month it will use what is set to be the ‘largest 3D-printed building in Europe’ as a server hotel from the end of 2023.
Real estate developer & investor Kraus Group, along with 3D printing construction firm Peri 3D Construction, and building materials firm Heidelberg Materials, are leading the project along with SSV Architekten Heidelberg and Mense-Korte ingenieure+architekten
Netrality Data Centers to expand 1301 Fannin carrier hotel in Houston, Texas
Netrality Data Centers to expand 1301 Fannin carrier hotel in Houston, Texas .
The company this week announced the expansion of its facility at 1301 Fannin Street; the project will add two new data halls encompassing 17,000 square feet (1,580 sqm) and more than 2.5MW of capacity.
The new data halls will be coming online at the end of summer 2023, and will be equipped with Aligned’s Delta Cube (Delta3) cooling technology.
“This expansion represents a strategic investment in supporting the growth of Houston’s vibrant business community,” said Gerald M. Marshall, president and CEO at Netrality Data Centers. “The expansion of 1301 Fannin serves the region’s growing demand for cutting-edge, secure, high-density, and energy-efficient data center environments, allowing it to remain Houston’s epicenter for innovation and technological advancements.”
Web Werks launches data center in Hyderabad, India
Indian data center operator Web Werks has launched a new data center in Hyderabad in partnership with Iron Mountain.
The Web Werks – Iron Mountain Data Centers Joint Venture (JV) this week announced the launch of its first data center on its campus in the city, located in Telangana state.
Located in the Kondapur region in Hyderabad, the Tier III quality HYD-1 data center spans 120,000 square feet (11,100 sqm) and offers 5.5MW of IT load in its first phase.
Nikhil Rathi, founder & CEO, of Web Werks, said: “Hyderabad is a major technology hub, and is fast becoming an important data center market in India. The Web Werks – Iron Mountain JV is excited to offer customers easy cloud and carrier access, driven by hyperscale demand for an improved connectivity-rich ecosystem in Hyderabad.”
NextDC confirms international expansion plans, seeks to raise AU$618 million
Australian data center firm NextDC has confirmed plans to expand internationally with new projects in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Auckland, New Zealand.
Last month NextDC quietly updated its site to include plans for new data center developments in New Zealand, Malaysia, and Japan. None of the locations had timeline or specification details at the time.
In an ASX filing this week, the company confirmed it was expanding internationally. The company is seeking to raise AU$618 million (US$413.3m) to fund the build-out of two projects in Malaysia and New Zealand, as well as further build-out of an existing facility in Sydney, Australia.
South African broadcast infrastructure firm Sentech plans data center business
South Africa’s state-owned broadcast infrastructure company is planning to become a colocation data center player.
Sentech CEO Mlamli Booi this week told ITWeb that the company will be upgrading its existing footprint and then expanding across the country. Booi said the company aims to consolidate the excess capacity of publicly-funded data centers, and deliver processing, data facilities, and cloud computing capacity.
The first phase of this plan will see Sentech upgrade its existing Nasrec-based Tier II-quality data center into a Tier III quality facility. The upgrade is set to be completed for relaunch by the end of the year.
AREP-backed PowerHouse to open hyperscale campus in Data Center Alley
PowerHouse Data Centers has entered into a 30-year lease agreement with CyrusOne Inc. for the operator’s entire data centre, ABX-1, located in Ashburn, Virginia.
PowerHouse is a joint venture between investment management firms American Real Estate Partners (AREP) and Harrison Street who are both backing the construction of ABX-1.
Substantial completion of this inaugural purpose-built data centre is scheduled for October. The two-story, 265,000 square feet powered shell is located at 21529 Beaumeade Circle in the heart of Data Center Alley.
ABX-1 will eventually feature the 300 MW substation, which will deliver more than 60 MW of power to the facility, with the rest available for the surrounding area.
Doug Fleit, co-founder and CEO of AREP and PowerHouse, said: “Now more than ever, hyperscalers and operators are looking for real estate solution providers to handle everything from land identification and acquisition to data centre design and construction.”
Océinde breaks ground on new Reunion Island data center
The French department in the Indian Ocean is set to see a data center built by local conglomerate Océinde. The company broke ground on the new facility in the Le Port Commune in the northwest of the island last week.
First announced in November 2022, the facility will be known as Omega 1 and will launch in Q3 2024. An investment of €10 million ($10.9m) will see a 1MW, 120-rack facility developed. Rooftop solar will cover up to 10 percent of the site’s needs.
Nassir Goulamaly, chairman and CEO of the Océinde Group, said: “The opening up of our overseas territories must be a complete success. It goes through maritime, air, and digital. With the realization of this data center project initiated more than 10 years ago, our ambition is to make Reunion Island a global digital hub, at the crossroads between the African and Asian continents.”
Aligned gains planning approval for first data center at Quantum Loophole campus in Maryland
Aligned gains planning approval for first data center at Quantum Loophole campus in Maryland .
Aligned Data Centers has been granted planning permission for a data center on the massive Quantum Loophole campus in Frederick County, Maryland.
First reported by the Frederick News-Post, the Frederick County Planning Commission last week approved the first site plan, with conditions, for the first data center on the Quantum Loophole campus.
Aligned’s plan for its plot at the Quantum Loophole campus– Aligned – Frederick County .
In a 4-3 vote, the commission approved Aligned’s request to construct a 450,000-square-foot (41,800 sqm) facility – known as IAD04 – on a 75-acre plot that would feature 42 generators.
Commissioner Joel Rensberger said he would like the Frederick County Sustainability Commission to provide input, due to the facility’s power needs.
Area31 to invest $67.5m in Depok, Indonesia data center
Data center provider Area31 will spend ~$67.5 million on its Depok, Indonesia data center over the next five years, D-Insights reports.
The data center is located in the Cimanggis area of Depok, West Java. The first phase of construction has already been completed, with 600 racks installed. The data center is capable of providing 20MW of capacity .
“When the existing capacity is full, we will build more data centers again. In five years, we could invest Rp 1 trillion ($67.5m) because the need for data centers is increasing and the market in Indonesia is very large,” said DVO president director Michael Alifen.
NTT to spend $11bn on data centers over five years
Japanese telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) plans to invest 8 trillion yen ($59 billion) over the next five years into data centers, artificial intelligence, and other “growth areas.”
Of that, at least 1.5 trillion yen ($11bn) will go to expanding or upgrading its data centers. The digital business, including AI and robots, gets at least 3 trillion yen ($22bn).
The company said that it expects the spending to raise earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by around 20 percent in fiscal year ending March 2028 as compared to the previous fiscal year. That should mean earnings of around 4 trillion yen ($29.4bn).
“We’re investing in growth areas to boost our ability to generate cash,” President Akira Shimada told a news conference, Nikkei reports.
DRFortress completes Hawaii expansion
The company this week announced the completion of its fourth expansion at the site, adding 220 racks and 500kW of power, available from June 1, and an additional 500kW to be built and installed in the expanded area in early 2024.
“We’re committed to ensuring this expansion – along with our entire facility – meets the customized needs of our customers and is operationally reliable, scalable, and secure for their critical IT systems and applications,” said Fred Rodi, president and founder of DRFortress. “With this expansion, we’re also thrilled to announce that our first anchor tenants will be a large public cloud provider launching a new Edge node in Hawaii and a new international carrier building their presence in Hawaii later this year.”
Vantage Data Centers adds $3bn into Southeast Asia rollout
DigitalBridge-backed Vantage Data Centers has announced the development of a second data centre campus (KUL2) in Cyberjaya with an additional planned US$3 billion (RM13.32 billion) investment.
Upon completion, the KUL2 campus will deliver 256MW of IT capacity to meet the growing customer demand for hyperscale data centre services in the Asia region.
Located adjacent to Vantage’s existing campus (KUL1) in Cyberjaya, the campus will be sited on nearly 35 acres and will include 10 facilities across 256,000 square meters (2.75 million square feet).
The first facility is planned to open its doors in the fourth quarter of 2025.
In addition, Vantage said it is expanding its KUL1 campus with a fourth 16MW facility that is currently under development.
T-Mobile to extend data center in Prague, Czechia
The telco this week announced it had started work on a new wing of its DC7 facility in the city’s Prague 15 district in “response to high demand” for data center services.
The four new data halls will offer an area of 1,400 sqm (15,070 sq ft) and capacity for up to 780 racks, taking the site’s total to 3,500 sqm (37,675 sq ft). The expansion will add 3MW of capacity, for a total of 10MW. The company said it would be investing 800 million crowns ($36.8m).
“Demand is huge and capacity is full, which is why we decided to make another significant investment in the expansion of the center and bring modern local facilities to clients from a reliable partner,” said Luboš Lukasík, director of the T-Business division at T-Mobile Czech Republic. “Our DC7 offers the highest standard on the market, high operational efficiency, and will also focus on sustainable solutions in the future.”
More than four million sq ft of data center developments could be coming to Culpeper County in Virginia.
Culpeper Town and County Councils have seen rezoning requests submitted that would allow around 17 buildings developed across two campuses located on the town’s border along McDevitt Drive.
First reported by the Culpeper Star-Exponent, the Culpeper County Planning Commission last week voted 7–1 to approve the request to rezone approximately 34.4 acres from RA (Rural Area) to LI (Light Industrial) along Route 799 (McDevitt Drive) and Route 699 (East Chandler Street), in the Stevensburg Magisterial District.
TPC Culpeper LC and TPC Freedom I LC made the request, with the Star-Exponent saying Peterson Companies is developing the site, which is part of the County’s McDevitt Drive Technology Zone.
Dutch quantum computing firm QuiX Quantum is to build a data center at its headquarters in Enschede.
Announced this week, the company and QMware will collaborate to develop the “first fully integrated, hybrid quantum-classical platform.” According to QuiX, the hybrid architecture will ‘integrate high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure with native quantum computing technology.’
The new data center is expected to be fully operational for commercial applications in August 2023. Details around the specifications of the data center or the hardware being deployed weren’t shared.
QMware will colocate on-site HPC hardware with QuiX Quantum’s room-temperature photonic-based technology. The different hardware types will be integrated with shared memory access through QMware’s proprietary software.
Beyon Group’s Batelco to invest in two cables and a new data center
Aligned gains planning approval for first data center at Quantum Loophole campus in Maryland .
Bahrain technology firm Beyon Group plans to invest $250 million into two subsea cables and a new data center.
The company this week announced its telco unit Batelco has joined the SEA-ME-WE 6 (Southeast Asia – Middle East – Western Europe) consortium. Batelco will also invest to build a new regional subsea cable, the Al Khaleej cable, which the company will fully own.
The group also announced Data Oasis, a new technology hub that will include a newly-built data center.
The new data center is to be built on a 140,000 sqm (1.5 million sq ft) site located in the south of Bahrain. Precise location and specifications weren’t shared.
The new facility will incorporate the SEA-ME-WE 6 and the Al Khaleej cables and be powered by a Beyon-owned solar park.
AT TOKYO data centre to go live in 2025
The new facility is situated centrally in Tokyo, in close proximity to major business and financial districts.
“We’re really excited to be opening this new facility,” said Akira Nakamura, CEO of AT TOKYO.
“Our goal is to continue to provide businesses in the region with effective communication hubs and datacentres that use the best possible technology infrastructure, enabling them to stay ahead of their competition and thrive in today’s digital economy.
“With our new facility, we’re confident that we’ll be able to deliver on that promise and provide the best possible service to our customers.”
The company adds that the data centre will feature the latest technology and infrastructure, including high-speed connectivity, redundant power systems and advanced cooling systems.