Data Center Investment News — 11/08/2023
Equinix jumps on trillion dollar opportunity with lates data centre
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
DigitalBridge-backed Latin American operator Scala Data Centers has launched its US$65 million data centre in Chile.
The facility, named SSCLCR01, is located in Curauma, Valparaíso region, and offers at an initial phase 5MW of IT capacity.
According to the group, the site is 100% booked to one hyperscale customer. No names were mentioned.
The campus is designed to reach a capacity of approximately 30MW over time.
Scala’s CEO and Co-Founder Marcos Peigo, said: “In a scenario where 5G accelerates the deployment of various services and applications that use high data volume and require low latency, Scala has succeeded in choosing its first campus to become operational in Chile.
“Furthermore, aligned with our purpose of enabling the future in Latin America, we have created a unique opportunity here for customers positioned on the West Coast of the USA and for a potential group in APAC (Asia-Pacific and China) to offer their products and solutions to Latin American customers.”
Edge Centres closes newest data centre M&A
Edge Centres has completed its fifth completed acquisition in under four months. The deal has added a previously Multacom-owned hub in Los Angeles, California, where enterprise demand continues to attract data centre M&A. The newly-acquired 25,000 square foot site, located at 707 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown, has a capacity of 1 Megawatt across 250 racks and is currently operating at 82% occupancy.
The data centre is the latest of 20 facilities to be acquired by the operator in three years to create a global network of sites in the US, Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and beyond.
Jonathan Eaves, Edge Centres Founder & CEO, said: “A year ago, Edge Centres opened its first PoP in the US to further support its Australian and Asian customers, as well as expand into the US. Over the last year, we worked very closely with the Multacom team. The experience has given us great confidence in their ability to support international, interstate, and local companies.
Edgecore brings in QTS heavyweight to drive $1.2bn data centre expansion budget.
Partners Group-owned EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure has appointed Clint Heiden as its new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). In this role, Heiden has been tasked with ensuring EdgeCore’s go-to-market functions “are aligned around the common goal of delivering certainty of execution for customers, partners, and investors”.Heiden has held several previous executive leadership roles in the data century industry, most recently as Chief Revenue Officer at QTS Data Centers and Chief Commercial Officer of EdgeConneX.
Prior to this, he served as President of several telecommunications companies, including Sidera Networks and PAETEC, and was Executive VP, Worldwide Sales for Cable & Wireless America streamlining each company’s go-to-market function, increasing revenue.In his early career, Heiden was the VP, Global Markets at UUNET, driving growth and playing a pivotal role in the company’s IPO.
Lee Kestler, CEO of EdgeCore, said: “In our industry, business development has taken on a much broader meaning, especially with hyperscale clients. Clint’s global leadership experience in connecting the evolution of a brand to customer focused solutions will be critical to our success.
Microsoft applies to build two data centers in San Jose, California
Microsoft has filed to develop two data centers in San Jose, California. San Jose Council Planning Division is set to meet on August 17 to discuss Microsoft’s plans for a 65-acre site at 1657 Alviso-Milpitas Road.
The company is requesting a permit to remove 79 trees for the construction of two single-story data center buildings totaling 397,205 square feet (36,900 sqm), a substation, and 224 backup generators. Microsoft acquired the land, along Route 237, back in 2017 for around $73 million.
At the time the company was proposing to develop a single four-story, 436,880 square feet (40,587 sqm), 49.5MW data center by 2020. The site, adjacent to a Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility and substation, is reportedly also set to feature a natural gas microgrid.
Fit-out complete at Colt DCS’s 25MW Frankfurt data center.
The fit-out of the Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS) data center in Frankfurt, Germany, is complete.Mercury Engineering, the main contractor on the project, announced on August 2 that they had handed over the data center that has been in the works since 2019.
This marks the completion of the first collaborative project between Colt DCS and Mercury.
The data center, called Frankfurt West, consists of 14 data halls (down from the 16 planned when first announced) with a total IT capacity of 25MW.Mercury Engineering delivered the full MEP fit-out and installed 120 air-cooled chillers, 240 computer room air conditioning units, 18 generators, and 40 UPSs for the 10,000 sqm (107,640 sq ft) of whitespace in the facility.
Bitcoin miner GDA opens three data centers in South Carolina
Bitcoin mining company Genesis Digital Assets (GDA) has opened three data centers in South Carolina with a total capacity of 33MW. The data centers are located in Upstate South Carolina, one near the town of Anderson, and the other two between Union and Lockhart.
The Anderson facility has been operational since February and has a capacity of 18MW, while the Union/Lockhart facilities launched the following month and have a combined total of 15MW.
The company used local suppliers and contracts for the facilities, noting in the news release that the Anderson facility is a repurposed textile warehouse and was built using North American-built infrastructure equipment.
Construction begins on UNN data center in Brunei
Construction has begun at the Unified National Networks (UNN) data center located at the UNN Tungku Submarine Landing Station in Brunei. A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the facility which will span 51,000 sq ft (4,740 sqm) when completed and house 200 racks supplied by Vertiv.
Construction is expected to be complete in a matter of months by using a prefabricated design, while the facility should be open by early 2024. The data center modules and equipment are currently undergoing testing before they are shipped to Brunei. UNN is also working with the Berakas Power Company to install a second independent power feed at the site.
Converge ICT to invest $60m in three new data centers
Philippines-based telecommunications company Converge ICT Solutions is planning to spend $60 million on the development of three new data centers in the Philippines, CEO Dennis Uy said. The Internet service provider is intending to develop data centers in Pampanga, Quezon City, and Cebu in the next 18 to 24 months.
Each data center will house 600 racks with the potential to expand to 1,000 racks, and will cost at least $20 million each. The new data centers will accompany the existing facilities in Clark and Pasig which are used for internal operations, and the third will join the 49MW upcoming hyperscale data center planned in Paranaque City.
The company signed a 14MW geothermal energy contract in November 2022 with Greencore Geothermal to power its parent company’s ComClark Network and Technology Corp’s data center in Angeles City.
NextDC has delivered an Edge data center module to site in Western Australia
NextDC has delivered an Edge data center module to a site in Western Australia.
“PH1 Port Hedland, NextDC’s latest Edge data center, has arrived in WA’s Pilbara region,” the company said on LinkedIn this week. “Having successfully made the 4,800km journey from Sydney, PH1 is ready to be reassembled where it will support the local resources sector as a global leader in enabling the safer, more sustainable, efficient, and productive mines of the future.”
According to the company’s website, The 1.5MW, single-story PH1 offers capacity for 320 racks across 727 sqm (7,825 sq ft) of technical space. The company said it is targeting an August 2023 go-live date. The company said the data center is “strategically located” near mining and port operations with direct connectivity to operational centers in Perth, and offers mining companies new connectivity and infrastructure options.
Google to spend $350m expanding Lowa data center
Google has announced plans to spend $350 million expanding its Council Bluffs data center on the Iowa/Nebraska border. Plans for the Council Bluffs data center were first announced in 2007. In 2012 and 2015, Google announced plans to expand, and has since spent around $5 billion on the campus and others in the region/state.
The expansion to the data center will support artificial intelligence and increase the cloud storage capabilities of the site, as demand for such services is growing.Allie Hopkins, head of data centers in Iowa and Nebraska for Google, said the expansion will mean “more buildings, more support needed across all fronts … not just the technicians and facility technicians but all the support services that we need to keep these buildings running.”
Zeittec to deliver data center to Paraná government in Brazil
Brazilian firm Zeittec is to build a new government data center. The company this week announced that a new facility will be constructed for the Paraná Court of Auditors at the TCE-PR [Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Paraná] headquarters in Curitiba, in the south of the country.
The complex will have a Zeittec Safe Room as its main site. The facility will be able to withstand 120 minutes of flames and feature a NOVEC 1230 gas extinguisher system and be monitored remotely by the company.
The main site will also be connected to a Huawei FM500 modular data center, to be installed in the building attached to the Court, to act as a backup. Building work and migration of IT systems is expected to take around 150 days. “The solution will consist of autonomous racks, but which will come from the factory with all the power, refrigeration, monitoring, and fire system integrated,” said Fabrício Costa, Zeittec’s technical director.
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (Thailand) Announces STT Bangkok 3 at One Bangkok
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Thailand (STT GDC Thailand) has announced STT Bangkok 3, the company’s third data center in Thailand. Scheduled for launch by the end of 2023, STT Bangkok 3 is situated within the One Bangkok district. The data center offers colocation space and low-latency network connectivity for digital-focused businesses.
The new 2MW data center joins STT Bangkok 1 (operational since 2021) and STT Bangkok 2 to collectively provide a total IT capacity of 42MW. STT Bangkok 3 will be powered with district cooling energy. In terms for security, the data center is ISO-27001 and PCI-DSS certified. The data center industry in Thailand continues to enjoy strong growth.
BBIX Thailand, a joint venture of True IDC and BBIX, recently commenced BKK Bangkok No.3 Center in the NTT Bangkok 1 Data Center to provide IX (Internet Exchange) Service from July 2023
NTT to ramp up its data center capacity to 348 MW in India
NTT, a data center company, is gearing up for a significant 70 percent expansion in its data center capacity, propelling it to 348 MW. Through the expansion, NTT plans to cater to an array of sectors, including over-the-top (OTT) players and domestic enterprises encompassing banking, manufacturing, and automotive domains. The company’s focus will also extend to entities operating in the cloud services sector within the country.
The Group also plans to merge both NTT and NTT Data’s overseas IT operations as this will help in growing its IT offerings in the country, with capabilities-building in analytics, applications, and AI and further synergies expected from the merger. The merger was announced in October 2022, with the combined IT services and infrastructure entity NTT Data Inc will be USD 30 billion in revenue terms.
Also, with the current data centers in 16 locations such as Mumbai, Delhi NCR, and Bengaluru, it plans to move into tier-II cities further. Also, a new campus is under construction in Kolkata with go-live expected by the end of this year. India stands as one of the largest employee bases for the company outside of Japan.