Data Center Investment News — 04/08/2023
American digital infrastructure REIT Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) has unveiled plans to further invest in the expansion of its footprint in India amidst an aggressive wider market boom.
In total, the new venture will amount to a capital expenditure (CAPEX) of US$42 million. It will result in the construction of the group’s fourth International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Mumbai, called MB4.
The facility will be targeted toward overseas businesses looking to expand their digital capability into the subcontinent.
Scheduled to open in Q4 2023 (subject to regulatory approvals), the first phase of MB4 will provide an initial capacity of 350 cabinets.
When fully built out, the facility is expected to provide 700 cabinets.
Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India, said: “The increased digitalization of the economy is constantly driving the need for data centre and interconnection services in India.
Singtel breaks ground on 8-floor Singapore data centre
South East Asia telecommunications company Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGX:Z74), also known as Singtel, has begun the construction of a new data centre in Singapore billed as the city’s highest power density and hyper-connected green facility.
DC Tuas, set to be operational in 2025, will provide 58MW of IT load capacity to meet the growing demand for digital infrastructure.
The facility, covering 120,000 square feet and spanning eight storeys, will be integrated with a cable landing station.
The groundbreaking ceremony saw the participation of Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Chief Executive Lew Chuen Hong.
Lew commended the company for investing in Singapore’s digital infrastructure and emphasized the importance of collaboration between IMDA and the industry to develop a sustainable and internationally connected digital ecosystem for Singapore’s digital future.
Scala Data Centers opens Chilean data centre part of $400m national expansion
Microsoft plans to build yet another data center in the San Antonio area of Texas.
In filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, first reported by the San Antonio Business Journal, the company said that it would spend $230 million on the project.
At 18844 FM 1957, the company plans to build two data center buildings named SAT80 and SAT81. It will also build a 106,000 sq ft (9,850 sqm) administrative building.
Construction is set to begin at the end of July, with the data centers coming online in the third quarter of 2024.
The company recently completed another 79,385 sq ft (7,375 sqm) data center at the Research Park campus, known as SAT46.
Microsoft has another facility in development – known as SAT15 – in San Antonio at 3555 Westover Link. The facility is set to span 245,000 sq ft (22,760 sqm) and will require an investment of $215.9 million; work is due to be completed in Q1 of 2024. This March, the company filed for plans to build a 153,230 sq ft (14,235 sqm) SAT40 data center.
A new company aims to build AI-focused GPU-filled cloud data centers in the Middle East and Europe.
The startup is still in stealth, but a report by The Information reveals a few details about the business, believed to be calling itself Omniva.
While a number of startups are trying to cash in on the current AI boom, what makes the company notable is the names behind the project: Sean Boyle, the CFO of AWS until 2020; Kushagra Vaid, a former Microsoft VP and distinguished engineer until 2021; and T.S. Khurana, Meta Platforms’ vice president of infrastructure until just last month.
The three execs did not respond to requests for comment, but the name of the company is revealed in a post by the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, where Boyle holds the vice chair position.
AirTrunk files to develop 320MW campus in Sydney, Australia
Maquarie-backed AirTrunk has filed for its SYD3 data center campus in Sydney, Australia.
After buying the land in 2021, the company has filed documents to the New South Wales Department of Planning for a 320MW data center covering 123,000 sqm (1.3 million sq ft) over seven stories.
The site in question is at 51 Huntingwood Drive, around 30km west of Sydney, and was purchased for AU$110 million (US$74.1m). In total, it is expected that the project will require an investment of close to AU$1 billion (US$670m) from start to finish.
The development will be built in stages, including demolition and bulk earthwork, and will feature two substations, 30 diesel fuel storage tanks, 216 emergency backup generators, three below-ground water tanks – each with a 335,000-liter capacity – 172 hybrid dry-coolers, and 86 water-cooled chillers.
AMD to invest $400m in new India campus
AMD has committed to investing approximately $400 million in India over the next five years.
The investment will see a new AMD campus in Bengaluru (Bangalore), Karnataka. This will be the company’s largest design center and is expected to create around 3,000 new engineering jobs by 2028.
The campus, which will span 500,000 sq ft (46,500 sqm) including laboratory space.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and IT, skill development, and entrepreneurship, said: “I welcome AMD’s decision to set up its largest R&D design center in India and expansion of the India-AMD partnership. It will certainly play an important role in building a world-class semiconductor design and innovation ecosystem.
“It will also provide tremendous opportunities for our large pool of highly skilled semiconductor engineers and researchers and will catalyze PM Narendra Modi’s vision of India becoming a global talent hub.”
Finland’s Elisa launches Edge data center with Wind River
Finnish telco Elisa and software firm Wind River have deployed a “fully automated” Edge data center.
The project combines Wind River Studio Cloud Platform to manage a distributed Kubernetes cloud infrastructure, and Wind River Studio Conductor for automated application deployments.along with a user plane function (UPF) application from Elisa’s current 5G core vendor.
The companies did not say where the Edge facility was deployed or give full specification – but they said this was the second Edge site to go into commercial production this year.
”We are delighted to continue our efficient collaboration with Wind River and take the first fully automated Edge data center into commercial service. Constant automation development is our key to future success,” said Elisa’s Markus Kinnunen, VP of cloud services.
Avijit Sinha, chief product officer, Wind River, added: “As a leader in the 5G landscape that powers the majority of 5G vRAN/O-RAN deployments with global operators, our Wind River Studio capabilities address service providers’ complex challenge of deploying and managing a physically distributed, ultra-low latency cloud-native infrastructure.”
KKR’s GTR to build 16MW data center in Barcelona, Spain
Global Technical Realty (GTR) is to develop a data center in Barcelona, Spain.
The company, backed by KKR’s third global infrastructure fund, announced the acquisition of its first data center development site in Spain.
The site is located on Parc de l’Alba in Cerdanyola del Vallès, outside Barcelona. The company said the 15,000 sqm plot has the capacity to accommodate up to 16MW of IT load. Timelines for development weren’t shared.
“Barcelona is the fifth largest metropolitan area in the EU and has the largest economy by GDP on the Mediterranean Sea,” said Franek Sodzawiczny, founder and CEO at Global Technical Realty. “The data center market there is set to grow rapidly. We plan to provide a data center that will service cloud requirements in a highly secure facility, utilizing renewable energy sources. We are excited to become a part of this bustling community.”
ESR secures $205 million Sustainability-Linked Loan for Hong Kong data center project
APAC real estate firm ESR has secured a Sustainability-Linked Loan (SLL) to develop a data center in Hong Kong.
ESR Group announced this week that it has closed the first SLL in Hong Kong for a brownfield data center project.
The HK$1.6 billion (US$205m) SLL will be used to fund the conversion of a building in Kwai Chung into the 21.3MW ESR Kwai Chung Data Centre HK1.
The five-year secured, committed facility has a tiered incentive mechanism where ESR will be entitled to an interest reduction when the project’s sustainability targets are achieved.
Hong Kong power company CLP Power is providing energy audit and advisory services to ESR to formulate the Key Performance Indicators of the SLL. These include sustainable features such as a diesel-generator-free construction site and a green wall in the façade.
Cirion plans 20MW data center in Santiago, Chile
Digital infrastructure and technology provider Cirion Technologies is going to build a 20MW data center in Santiago, Chile.
Known as SAN2, the facility will be the company’s second data center in the country and is expected to be ready for use in early 2025.
The data center will be located at a 23,000 sqm (248,000 sq ft) site in the Quilicura industrial district of the city, around 2.5 km from the company’s existing data center, to which it will have a direct connection.
“The development of this new data center in Santiago is another important step on our journey to grow the platform of low-latency, interconnected data centers and establish a thriving digital ecosystem in Latin America,” said Facundo Castro, CEO of Cirion Technologies.
“This new facility in Santiago reflects Cirion’s ongoing commitment to invest in and provide our clients with the most comprehensive set of data center solutions to support their digital transformation across the region.”
Digital Realty, TPG to acquire Northern Virginia data centres
Digital Realty and TPG have established a joint venture in which TPG will acquire a majority stake in three hyperscale data centres in Northern Virginia.
Digital Realty will maintain a minority interest in the portfolio while continuing to manage day-to-day operations of the assets.
“We welcome this partnership with TPG, a highly distinguished investment partner,” said Digital Realty chief investment officer Greg Wright.
“The completion of this stabilised hyperscale data centre joint venture bolsters and diversifies Digital Realty’s capital sources with an experienced partner and further enhances the efficiency of our balance sheet.
The three hyperscale data centres contributed to the joint venture at an aggregate value of US$1.5 billion.