Data Center Investment News — 14/07/2023
Indian construction company to build data center in Gabon
Indian construction company Shapoorji Pallonji has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gabonese state to build a data center in the African nation.
The national data center project has been underway for several months with the company first visiting Gabon in March 2023, but is approaching materialization after the Minister of Digital Economy Jean Pierre Doukaga Kassa and the Minister of Tourism Jean-Norbert Diramba (acting as an interim minister for the Promotion of Investments, Public-Private Partners) signed an MoU with Shapoorji Pallonji CEO Ransit Gajav.
The negotiation focused on the project and its financing, with Minister Kassa ordering his services to continue discussions with Shapoorji Pallonji with the involvement of the central administration, Digital Infrastructure Heritage Company, and the National Agency for Digital Infrastructure and Frequencies.
Details of the potential data center have not been shared, except that it will be used for the managing and storage of governmental data.
IIJ launches second building at Shiroi campus in Japan
The company this week announced the start of operations at the second phase building on its Shiroi Data Center Campus in Shiroi-shi, Chiba Prefecture.
The facility had been under construction since May 2022; and will offer 10MW and capacity for 1,100 racks across 8,000 sqm (86,110 sq ft). Currently, the building has 550 racks, with the remaining half due to come into use by February 2024.
The new air-cooled building offers densities of 10-20kW per rack and utilizes on-site solar.
“The Shiroi DCC’s second phase building aims to meet increasingly diverse colocation needs, from companies offering private cloud services and SI service providers to cloud vendors and content providers, including those installing AI platforms, as well as data center service providers needing reseller space with outstanding energy efficiency,” the company said.
Center3 expands Khurais Riyadh data centre
Center3, a subsidiary of stc Group, has completed a 9.6MW expansion of its Khurais, Riyad hyperscaler-grade data centre, enhancing its hosting capacity for customers.
center3 say the expansion was built to meet global hyperscalers requirements and will help develop the MENA region’s digital industry as it features state-of-the-art infrastructure and advanced technologies.
The additional capacity will allow hyperscalers and other customers of the data centre to scale their cloud and other digital services faster and more reliably.
“We are proud to announce the expansion of our Khurais data centre in Riyadh. We are committed to investing in the latest technologies and providing exceptional services to our customers while meeting growing demand,” said Eng. Fahad Al Hajeri, CEO of center3.
Thor’s Form8ation breaks ground on Spanish data center campus in Madrid
“We have commenced work on our new highly sustainable data center campus in Madrid,” the company said on LinkedIn this week. The first 24MW facility is underway on a site that ultimately will deliver 100MW+.”
US real estate group Thor Equities founded a new digital infrastructure unit, Thor Digital, in April 2022 before rebranding it to Form8tion earlier this year. The Madrid One campus is based at a former Coca-Cola bottling plant in the Nino del Remedio Industrial Estate acquired by the company in October 2022.
The group’s ‘Madrid One’ campus will offer up to 100MW of capacity across 60,000 sqm (645,850 sq ft) – Thor previously said phase one of the 200,000 sqm (2.1 million sq ft) campus will offer up to 20MW of capacity, growing to more than 100MW and seeing some €600 million ($640m) invested in the project.
Form8tion renderings suggest the campus will host five buildings across some 70 acres. The company’s website says the facilities can be dedicated for single occupancy from an initial 6MW up to 30MW and delivered in 12-24 months.
CyrusOne plans 72MW data center in Frankfurt, Germany
The company this week announced plans to build its next data center in Frankfurt, named FRA6, following the acquisition of the Europark office site in Sossenheim.
Set on 27,500 sqm (296,000 sq ft), FRA6 will offer a total IT capacity of 72MW over four floors, with each level delivering 18MW. Timelines for development weren’t shared.
“The acquisition of the Europark site further demonstrates CyrusOne’s commitment to Frankfurt as the digital capital of Europe and our ongoing European expansion. We are continually assessing the market with a view to increasing our presence in the Frankfurt area,” said Andreas Paduch, area VP of European sales at CyrusOne. “Initial discussions with hyperscale customers and other large enterprises have revealed significant early interest in FRA6 and we look forward to continuing these as we progress the build. This underscores both our expertise in this market and our ability to consistently deliver solutions that are instrumental to our customers’ business success and expansion goals.”
Navégalo to open data center in San José, Costa Rica
The company this week said the 300-rack facility will open on August 15. Phase one will offer 5MW, with the data center scalable to 15MW
Cesar Sanabria, Navégalo´s business development manager, said: “Clients will enjoy a highly connected environment, enabling them to thrive in the digital landscape, whether it’s accessing cloud services, collaborating with global partners, or delivering content to end-users.”
The new facility is ANSI/TIA-942 Rated 3, and Uptime Tier III certification is expected later this year.
Founded in 2002, Navégalo offers hosting, domains, VoIP, cybersecurity, and colocation services. Known as Grupo GMS until 2019, the company has previously acquired Rack Lodge, Boomerang Wireless, Othos Telecom, and Block DDoS.
Peterson Companies announces 2 million sq ft data center campus in Virginia’s Culpeper County
Real estate development firm Peterson Companies has officially announced plans for a large data center campus in Culpeper County, Virginia.
The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors granted a rezoning application for the development of the new data center campus.
Peterson said the successful rezoning of 34.4 acres of land along Route 799 (McDevitt Drive) and Route 699 (East Chandler Street), which adjoin 115 acres of land previously rezoned by the Town of Culpeper for light industrial, paves the way for the Culpeper Technology Campus, a 150-acre site that will support more than two million square feet of data centers.
Site plans on the company’s website suggest up to eight buildings, though plans filed with the County suggest potentially nine with up to 2.1 million sq ft (195,100 sqm) of data center space. Peterson has said power will be available to the site by 2025 via two approved 300MW Dominion substations.
Prea and Van Caem reveal details of Bluestar 60MW data center in Berlin
Dutch realtor Van Caem and developer Prea Group have revealed details of a 60MW four-story data center campus they plan to build in the heart of Berlin.
First revealed in June, the €1 billion ($1bn) Bluestar project will be built on a “wasteland” site near Rhinstraße 139 in Berlin-Lichtenberg. The largest rentable data center in Berlin, and the fifth largest in Germany, it is due to open in 2026, according to the recent launch event.
“With the construction permit soon to be granted, we will build a high-performance data center with a capacity of 100MW on the ecologically designed Bluestar campus by 2026, distinguished by energy-efficient cooling, renewable energy sources, and careful waste heat utilization,” says the Prea Group’s site.
Stream DC files to expand Phoenix campus to 200MW
Stream Data Centers has filed to expand its data center campus in the Goodyear area of Phoenix, Arizona, to 2 million sq ft.
The Goodyear Planning and Zoning Commission last week passed a request by Stream to rezone approximately 104 acres on Litchfield Road and Lower Buckeye Road from I-1 (Light Industrial), to I-1 (Light Industrial) with a Planned Area Development (PAD) Overlay.
The zoning application was recommended for approval by county staff and will go to the City Council in the coming weeks. The PAD is needed to modify one development standard in order to accommodate additional screening for roof-mounted mechanical equipment.
According to application documents, the company was recently granted site plan approval for a multi-phased development on 104 acres in Maricopa County, comprising five more two-story data center buildings, with each being approximately 400,000 square feet (37,160 sqm) in size.
Google files for three-building data center campus in Belgium
Google has filed to build a new data center campus in Belgium.
First announced by Hugues Bayet, mayor of the municipality of Farciennes, the search and cloud company is planning to develop three facilities at the Ecopôle business park in Wallonia.
“Google at the Ecopole, it’s concrete! A new milestone has been reached: the permit application has just been submitted to the Municipal Administration!” Bayet said last week.
The campus will span some 53,000 sqm (570,500 sq ft). Construction will start at the end of the year and will open in 2025. The first phase will span around 7,500 sqm (80,730 sq ft).
Microsoft plans data center in Sumaré, Brazil
Microsoft is planning a new data center in São Paulo state, Brazil.
Liberal reports that Microsoft is developing a new data center in the Sumaré, likely to expand its existing São Paulo Azure cloud region.
The facility will be located on the banks of the Venâncio Calegari Municipal Road, next to Santo Antonio Park, in the Nova Veneza region.
The project has already received approval from Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo), but details have been kept confidential, according to the publication.
Microsoft launched a São Paulo Azure cloud region – known as Brazil South – in Campinas in 2014. It was expanded to three availability zones in 2021.
CtrlS to Develop 150MW Hyperscale Data Center in Thailand’s Chonburi Province
CtrlS has announced its plans to establish a cutting-edge hyperscale data center in Chonburi Province, located in Thailand.
CtrlS has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Eastern Economic Corridor Office (EECO), a public agency responsible for economic development in the region. The agreement grants CtrlS a lease on a 10-acre land parcel for an impressive duration of 50 years.
According to Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Chairman of CtrlS, the data center development in the Eastern Economic Corridor will attract both international and domestic hyperscale and enterprise customers.
Housing Bank inaugurates data center in Jordan
The data center, which the company claims is the first of its kind for the banking sector in Jordan, meets the Uptime Institute’s Tier III standards.
The new facility has been developed with Huawei, and construction companies Badaweih and STS, among others.
The development is part of the bank’s infrastructure upgrade and modernization project, and is hoped to improve uptime and enable the company to keep up to date with global banking development trends.
Details surrounding the size, IT capacity, and exact location have not been provided by the company, though the company has confirmed that the development was supported by the Central Bank of Jordan.
Teraco breaks ground on phase 2 of JB4 campus in Johannesburg, South Africa
South African data center provider Teraco has broken ground on a second facility at its Bredell campus in the Ekurhuleni area of Johannesburg.
“Following the completion of Phase 1 in November 2022, construction is now underway on JB4 Phase 2, which will further enhance Teraco’s capacity to meet the growing demand for data center services in the region,” the company said on LinkedIn this week.
“The JB4 facility offers highly resilient and secure colocation facilities, and at the end-state, it will comprise 80,000 square meters (861,110 sq ft) of building structure serviced by 80MW of utility power supply servicing 50MW of critical power load.”
The company broke ground on the campus in November 2020. The first phase of JB4 comprises 30,000 sqm (322,920 sq ft) of building structure, 8,000 sqm (86,110 sq ft) of data hall space across eight halls, and 19MW of critical power load.
Flexential plans data center campus expansions in Georgia and Oregon
Flexential has announced new data center developments in Georgia and Oregon, with a second building planned at its new campus in Atlanta and a fifth building coming in Hillsboro.
The company this week announced the construction of a new 36MW phased development at its Atlanta-Douglasville, Georgia campus. Timelines for completion were not shared. This development is in addition to a 22.5MW facility announced last year that will be available for customers this year.
In Oregon, Flexential said it aims to complete the first phase of its new Hillsboro 4 facility in Portland by the Fall of 2023, and plans to break ground on its fifth facility in the market. Planning for Hillsboro 5, a 36MW data center, is underway, but project timelines weren’t shared.
“Today’s expansion further supports customers in solving their most complex hybrid IT infrastructure requirements with Flexential. In addition to the new projects in Atlanta and Hillsboro, we are actively developing additional capacity options in Denver, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Tampa in 2023,” said Chris Downie, CEO at Flexential.
Google breaks ground on Mesa data center campus in Arizona
Local press reports the search and cloud giant has begun work on the $1 billion project, previously known as “Redhawk.”
The facility, which has been in the works since 2019, will span 750,000 square feet (70,000 sqm) once fully built out on 187 acres of farmland on the northwest corner of Elliot and Sossaman roads. The first 288,530 sq ft (26,805 sqm) phase is reportedly due live in July 2025, and set for full build-out across three phases by 2030.
In a statement, Google said data centers, including the one built in Mesa, will power the company’s tools like Search, Gmail, Maps, and ‘ongoing artificial intelligence innovation’.
“We are pleased to see Google making this tremendous investment in Mesa’s Elliot Road Technology Corridor as they break ground on their cutting-edge, air-cooled data center campus,” Mesa’s economic development director Bill Jabjiniak told Business Journal. “Mesa’s investment in critical infrastructure has made it possible for quality technology companies and advanced manufacturers to locate and thrive, strengthening Mesa’s economy by bringing high-paying jobs and substantial investments.”
Finland’s Remov announces 7.2MW data center connected to district heating
Finnish data center developer Remov has announced a 7.2MW data center that will share its waste heat with the city of Seinäjoki. The announcement appears to be a new name for a project launched in 2021.
Remov says 90 percent of the heat generated at the Remov campus will be captured and used in a district heating system run by the local utility Seinäjoki Energy. The 30-hectare site can accommodate up to 150MW of capacity, and if all this heat energy is captured it could cover a large part of the city’s need for warmth, says Remov. The company also claims this makes a claim that this makes it a “carbon-negative data center ecosystem.”
The data center is due to be built by Rittal, and has support from the city as well as the Finnish Government.
While the announcement gives scant details, it is strikingly similar to a plan announced by Seinäjoki in June 2021, which featured the same partners (Rittal and Seinäjoki Energy), and the same claim to being carbon-negative.
Sparkle launches Panama data center
The company this week announced the launch of the Panama Digital Gateway in partnership with local telco Trans Ocean Network (TON).
Located in the Corozal area of Panama City, the new Tier III-certified (Design) building offers 5,500 square meters (59,200 sq ft) of space for up to 650 equivalent racks across five modules and 3.5MW of scalable power.
The new facility is the landing point of the Curie cable system connecting California to Chile with a branching unit into Panama developed by Google and Sparkle.
“Panama Digital Gateway consolidates and positions Panama as the digital hub of the region, strengthening the connectivity of our country, and becoming a strategic interconnection offer for OTTs, carriers and enterprises,” said David Gonzalez Solis, CEO of Trans Ocean Network. “We are very pleased to be participating in the construction and operation of this open hub in conjunction with a partner of experience and global scale such as Sparkle.”
AWS Building New Data Center in Korea’s Incheon
Amazon Web Services is reportedly preparing to build a super-sized data center in Korea’s western port city of Incheon to respond to rising domestic cloud and artificial intelligence demand.
Reports cited cloud industry officials that AWS has currently signed a contract with an architect firm and entered the final stage of designing the 96-megawatt data center. It’s expected the cloud giant to start selection for a contractor to begin construction next year and completion by 2026. Since entering the Korean market in 2012, AWS has secured a number of Korean conglomerates and large startups as clients, and it thinks the Korean market has some room for growth in the areas of finance and public sectors.
In particular, it’s betting big on the higher demand for generative AI-related services and AI-based infrastructure and goes in line with its US$ 100 million investment to establish a program to connect customers in utilizing AI and machine learning.
Singtel to Develop Green Technology Data Center Campus in Johor
Singtel, the telecommunications company based in Singapore, has announced its plans to establish an environmentally sustainable data center campus in Johor, utilizing green technology.
The declaration was conveyed through a Facebook post by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who has been visiting Singapore on a three-day working trip since July 5.
Onn Hafiz expressed his optimism that Singtel’s initiative will propel Johor towards creating the most advanced communication and data center ecosystem in Asia. This development aims to position the state as a prominent hub for investments in renewable energy and artificial intelligence technology.
Application filed for Oxfordshire data center & life sciences development
The company is planning to build a campus of seven 25m high buildings, a data center, and two multi-story car parks.
The proposed development will be at the former Wicklesham Quarry in Faringdon and will span 42,286 sqm (455,163 sq ft). The size and capacity of the data center planned have not been shared.
The development, submitted on behalf of De Montalt by Mango Planning & Development, is still in the consultation phase according to the White Horse Vale District Council, meaning it is not yet under consideration by the council. The consultation period will end on July 27, with a decision set to be given by September 21.
Local residents are already objecting to the development. Anna Hoare is campaigning against the site and has gathered almost 2,000 signatures for her petition.