Data Center Investment News — 23/06/2023
Hyperscaler AirTrunk publishes plans for largest single data centre expansion ever
APAC hyperscale data centre operator AirTrunk has released plans for a 70-megawatt (MW) expansion of its Sydney north facility, AirTrunk SYD2 (SYD2).
This will be according to the company, its largest single expansion at any of its data centres to date.
The expansion will the facility’s total capacity to more than 120MW.
Collectively, AirTrunk’s Australian platform, which also includes SYD1 and SYD3 in Western Sydney and MEL1 in Melbourne, will offer over 700MW of capacity.
Completion of the two-phase expansion is expected in 2024.
Located on 3.95 hectares of land in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, SYD2 opened its first phase in early 2021, followed by its second phase in early 2023.
Thailand’s growing digital economy receives boost with new data centre joint venture
Evolution Data Centres (EDC) has signed a joint venture agreement with Central Pattana PCL to design, build and operate a data centre in central Bangkok, Thailand.
Central Pattana PCL is one of the largest property developers in Thailand whose portfolio includes retail, residential, and mixed-use developments, as well as hotels and office buildings.
The partnership will see the development of a new 34MW facility designed to support the digital economy and meet the growing demand for cloud and data centre services in the country.
EDC have selected Thailand as part of their strategy to focus on growing markets and “specifically because of the country’s high internet usage and technology-savvy population”.
Darren Webb, Chief Executive Officer of Evolution Data Centres, said: “Thailand is an important, high growth market, for us, and we are committed to delivering world-class infrastructure to support the country’s digital transformation. We have seen some of the major Cloud providers recently move into the country, we look forward to combining the strengths of EDC and Central Pattana PCL to build and operate a hyper-scale, greener data centre, to underpin the future growth.”
Europe’s AQ Compute expands portfolio with OnValue integration and new CEO appointment
Data centre investor and operator AQ Compute, a subsidiary of Aquila Group, has announced the integration of services company OnValue into its portfolio.
OnValue has a team of around 20 data centre development and related sales activities experts and has been a partner of AQ Compute since 2022.
With this integration, AQ Compute has also appointed Henry Daunert, former CEO of OnValue, as CEO of AQ Compute with immediate effect.
He has previously served AQ Compute as Executive Vice President to support the development of a portfolio of net zero data centres in EMEA.
In light of this new corporate structure, the previous CEO, Petter M. Tømmeraas, has decided to leave AQ Compute to pursue other opportunities outside of the company, the group said.
Wingu.Africa inaugurates Ethiopia data center
Djibouti-based data center company Wingu.Africa has inaugurated its Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, data center.
The data center is located in the Ethio ICT park, built on a 161,500 sq ft (15,000 sq m) plot of land, and will offer a capacity of 10MW across 800 racks when fully operational.
Technology and Innovation Minister Belete Molla, who attended the opening, said that the data center “will be of critical importance to support Ethiopia’s growth in the ICT sector and to realize a digital transformation.”
The construction of the colocation facility took two years to complete and $50 million from Wingu.Africa. The data center, built to meet Tier III standards, will host Ethiopia’s first Internet Exchange.
Cologix completes & pre-leases 120MW Virginia data center
The company this week announced the completion and pre-lease of its new, 120MW Scalelogix data center in Northern Virginia.
Located in Loudoun County’s Ashburn, the three-story, 455,000-square-foot (42,270 sqm) Scalelogix ASH1 data center went into service in May 2023.
Though the company first announced plans for a Virginia facility in late 2020, Cologix said it finished the facility in seven months from permit to customer turnover. It was pre-leased by an unnamed “major global technology company.”
“We’re aggressively expanding our hyperscale Edge portfolio across North America in response to growing demand from major global cloud providers and large digital enterprises,” said Cologix chief revenue officer Chris Heinrich. “With their massive scale and top-tier performance, our Scalelogix data centers provide high-speed, ultra-low latency, and highly secure access to fixed, 5G, and public cloud networks that today’s businesses require for success.”
MTP inaugurates data center in Mexico City
Mexican towers firm México Telecom Partners (MTP) has launched a new data center in Mexico City.
“For Mexico Telecom Partners it is a pride to share that today took place the inauguration of our new Data Center in Mexico City,” MTP said on LinkedIn last week. “Our Santa Fe Data Center represents an important investment in cutting-edge technology and infrastructure, designed to meet the growing demands of the current digital era and through which our more than 16 years implementing the largest Information Technology infrastructure in Mexico are consolidated.”
The DigitalBridge-owned company reportedly invested 300 million pesos ($17.5 million) in the project. The precise location and facility specifications weren’t shared.
“Today there is no capacity or availability in Mexico City, hence there is a need for infrastructure and technological support for the entire central area of the country,” José Sola, CEO of México Telecom Partners told Reforma. “We see that the market trend in the United States is 30MW of data center capacity per million inhabitants, in Mexico there are 1.1MW per million inhabitants.”
Sabey Data Centers adds 85MW to Quincy data centre campus
Sabey Data Centers, a joint venture between Sabey Corporation and National Real Estate Advisors, LLC, acting as the investment manager on behalf of its institutional clients, has expanded its Quincy data centre campus, in Massachusetts.
Its newest phase comprises two buildings and over 85 MW of critical power.
The Quincy location is one of Sabey Data Centers’ largest multi-tenant data centre campuses, now with over 525,000 square feet across five purpose-built buildings.
Tim Mirick, Chief Revenue Officer of Sabey Data , said: “This is an exciting time for the entire Sabey organisation. This expansion of our Quincy Data Center is a continuation of Sabey’s promise to provide best in class service to our customers. We are thrilled to be able to build out this campus to meet the demands of the industry.”
NextDC’s completes S3 data center expansion in Sydney
Construction is finally completed at NextDC’s S3 data center in Sydney, Australia after AU$1 billion (US$685m) of investment.
The first phase of the data center opened in August 2022, after construction started in March 2021. Construction on the second phase has now finished.
The facility now has over 26,000 sqm (280,000 sq ft) of data halls and ancillary infrastructure space across nine levels, and 20,000 sqm (215,000 sq ft) of IT space, with a capacity of 80MW across 10,800 racks. The second and final phase of construction added 12,000 sqm (129,165 sq ft) of data hall space to the first phase.
The facility was designed by Greenbox Architects and has been awarded an Uptime Institute Tier IV certification. As NextDC’s third data center in Sydney, S3 interconnects to NextDC’s existing S1 and S2 Sydney data centers. The company also has plans for S4 in Horsley Park, and S5 in Macquarie Park.
Telenor and Hafslund team up to develop data centers in Norway
Telenor and Hafslund plan to build three multi-tenant colocation data centers in the Oslo region with a combined capacity of 40MW. Further details of locations, along with a name for the new venture, weren’t shared.
Construction of the first facility is expected to commence later this year. Telenor will place some of its own infrastructure in the facilities, and cryptocurrency miners will not be welcome at the facilities.
The company has also been backed by HitecVision, an energy-company investor in Europe, and Analysys Mason, a consulting agency specializing in telecom, media, and technology. Ownership of the new company is split equally between Telenor, Hafslund, and HitechVision, each with 31.7 percent, while Analysys Mason holds the remaining five percent.
Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor, said: “Data centers are, in many ways, the digital heart of any business. This is where the data flows to and from, which involves high quality, security, and energy efficiency requirements. Together with Hafslund and partners, we will now establish Norway’s most secure commercial data center operator, with a strong focus on sustainable solutions.”
Edge Centres acquires data center in Reston, Virginia
The company said the newly-acquired carrier hotel facility, renamed EC104, offers 1MW with room to scale, and has 20 individual carriers present.
Terms of the acquisition weren’t shared.
Jon Eaves, founder and CEO of Edge Centres, said: “Building the next stage of our rapid and sweeping expansion on the foundation of a carrier hotel will further support the development of our global Edge platform. The acquisition of EC104 in Reston, Virginia, cements our commitment to expanding in the US and supporting Edge workloads wherever they may be and whatever form they take.”
Though the company didn’t disclose the precise location, the data center matches 11513 Sunset Hills Rd in Fairfax County.
The 15,250 sq ft (1,415 sqm) data center was formerly a Switch & Data facility. After Switch & Data was acquired by Equinix, the site was one of 16 sold to 365 Data Centers (then 365 Main) in 2012.
STT GDC Philippines expands data centre capacity at three sites
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC Philippines) has announced plans to expand its capacity by 5.2MW by Q3 of 2023.
The news comes in response to high market demand and the continuing digital transformation of the country.
Specifically, STT GDC Philippines, a joint venture between Globe, the Ayala Corporation, and Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), will see its existing data centres in Makati, Cavite and Quezon City exceed the capacity of most single data centres locally.
“The ever-growing demand for digital services has underscored the necessity for the private sector to actively contribute to the nation’s digital transformation,” said Carlo Malana, president and CEO of STT GDC Philippines.
“As part of STT GDC Philippines’ growth strategy to support the country’s digital infrastructure build, this capacity expansion is part of the commitment made to support the government’s endeavours in delivering reliable and robust digital infrastructure to our fellow Filipinos.”
Temasek-funded STT data centre to open in Indonesia
Asian operator PT ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (Indonesia) or PT STT GDC Indonesia has officially launched its first data centre facility, STT Jakarta 1, in Bekasi, Jawa Barat.
The campus will support up to 72 megawatts of IT capacity, with STT Jakarta 1 supporting up to 19.5 MW.
The new facility is the first building in the data centre campus developed under a joint venture with Indonesian conglomerate Triputra Group and global investment company Temasek.
Lionel Yeo, Chief Executive Officer, Southeast Asia, STT GDC, said: “Data centres form a vital foundation of a thriving digital economy. STT Jakarta 1 not only provides critical digital infrastructure of the highest global quality, but also offers differentiated solutions to meet the current and future computing needs of both government and enterprises alike.
“Our strategic market approaches, sustainable initiatives and operational excellence enable customers to optimise their most valuable asset — data — resulting in transformative outcomes in today’s dynamic market.”
EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure brings out the big guns with 3 new hires
Wholesale data centre developer, owner and operator EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure has brought on board three new Operating Directors to its board.
These include Heather Dooley, Mark Sokol, and Brian Mattson, all of which have at some point in their careers worked for Google.
Additionally, Dooley steps in as Lead Operating Director to fill the role Lee Kestler vacated when he transitioned to CEO of EdgeCore in March. Kestler remains on the board in his role as CEO.
Chief executive Kestler said: “EdgeCore is thrilled to welcome such highly qualified individuals to our board of directors.
“We are confident their unique skillsets, professional experiences, and insights will provide valuable perspectives as we continue to execute our strategy to serve the world’s largest cloud, internet and technology companies.”
KDDI’s Telehouse acquires Allied Properties’ data center portfolio for $1 billion
The data center firm’s parent company KDDI this week announced it had acquired three data centers and the accompanying assets in Toronto, Canada from Allied Properties REIT.
KDDI paid CA$1.35 billion (US$1.02bn) for the portfolio, and will be establishing a new local entity, KDDI Canada, Inc.
The Allied data center portfolio comprises freehold interests in 151 Front Street West and 905 King Street West, and a leasehold interest in 250 Front Street West. It does not include 20 York Street, the site for Union Centre.
KDDI said at full build-out, the facilities will offer 30MW of IT load.
Yasuaki Kuwahara, senior managing executive officer and head of business solutions at KDDI, said: “This is another milestone achievement for KDDI, and an exciting investment which will enhance connectivity capabilities for Canadian businesses.”
365 Data Centers expanding Tampa data center in Florida
365 Data Centers is building an additional floor of data center space at its Tampa, Florida site.
Located in the Franklin Exchange building at 655 North Franklin Street, 365 will add a floor of data center space to the building which houses 25 different carriers on-site and the Tampa Internet Exchange.
The expansion follows an upgrade to the power plant at the site, and will double the company’s existing market footprint.
“While growing the company significantly throughout the past six years, we are proud to have built our business on superior customer service and infrastructure solutions,” stated Bob DeSantis, CEO of 365 Data Centers. “This expansion will solidify 365 Data Centers as the leading network-centric colocation service provider in one of our fastest growing edge markets, providing existing and prospective customers with access to additional space, power, and connectivity.”