Data Center Investment News — 16/05/2025

OpenAI considers data center in United Arab Emirates

 OpenAI is reportedly close to finalising a deal to build a data centre in the United Arab Emirates, potentially announced during former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East visit. The project may be part of the $500 billion SoftBank-backed Stargate initiative, which OpenAI aims to expand globally with partnerships in up to ten countries. The UAE, already an investor through state-owned MGX and linked to key entities like G42, is deeply involved. Microsoft, another OpenAI backer, invested $1.5 billion in G42 last year. Recent U.S. policy changes have also eased AI chip export restrictions, possibly supporting this international expansion.

Applied Digital proposes “multi-billion-dollar” data center in South Dakota

Applied Digital is looking to develop a multi-billion-dollar data center in Deuel County, South Dakota. The project could see up to $16 billion in investment and create up to 200 high-paying jobs.

According to Nick Phillips, Applied’s executive vice president of external affairs, the project’s timeline includes an estimated six to nine months through the zoning and state-level decisions, and 18 to 24 months for construction. “When we take a large amount of energy and we put that energy into these buildings for the computers to do the work that they do, they generate a lot of heat,” Phillips said. “If you have a thing that you’re trying to cool down, whether it’s a data center or really anything, if you look at other markets for data centers such as Phoenix or Dallas or Virginia or other places that are much hotter, you end up putting a lot of either energy or water into cooling those facilities. South Dakota, Toronto is much colder than some of those other places. It becomes less expensive from a power perspective to cool buildings, because it’s cooler, we’re also able to reduce the amount of water that’s consumed, for those buildings,” Phillips said.

In total, the data center project could offer 430MW of IT capacity. The initial plan would see two buildings developed at 907,000 square feet (84,263 sqm) per building.

Apto to invest $3.4bn to build Italy’s largest data center campus

European firm Apto plans to build a data center campus on a 228,000 sqm (2,454,170 sq ft) site in Lacchiarella, near Milan, Italy. “Milan is a high-growth market and we’re proud to have secured such a strategically located site with direct access to key networks and long-term development potential,” said Russell Poole, CEO of Apto. “This move sends a strong signal: Apto is ready to deliver the digital capacity the region needs to grow.”

Colt DCS breaks ground on second Paris data center

The facility, Colt Paris 2, is the first of three data centers planned for a 12.5-acre site in Villebon-sur-Yvette, southwest of Paris. “This project not only implements our innovative new design, but it also demonstrates our dedication to sustainable growth and innovation. By investing in renewable energy contracts and supporting the local community through waste heat reuse, we are helping to fulfil the growing demand for cloud and AI services while setting new standards for environmental responsibility.”

Partners Group to acquire Singaporean data center operator Digital Halo

Digital Halo is a data center operator with facilities located across Southeast and North Asia, and is currently owned by Arch Capital, which will remain a minority shareholder in the business. Kai Goh, CEO and co-founder of Digital Halo, added: “After bringing our first site in Manila into operation, securing power and all necessary building permits in Johor, and obtaining exclusivity on a third site, we are pleased to bring Partners Group on board to drive the next phase of our growth. “We plan to build and operate next-generation, sustainable, and AI-ready data center campuses that service the needs of both US and Asian hyperscalers and enterprises across Asia. We look forward to leveraging Partners Group’s significant experience in building next-generation infrastructure to capitalize on opportunities across the region.”

NTT Data acquires land in seven markets for 1GW of data center developments

The land acquisitions have occurred over the past six months and span locations in North America, Europe, and the APAC regions. “Our land acquisitions are about more than growth; they’re about shaping the future of digital infrastructure on a global scale,” added Adams. “As the digital landscape evolves at unprecedented speed, NTT Global Data Centers is investing boldly to ensure our customers are ready to lead in an increasingly connected and dynamic world.”

Merlin Edged launches Barcelona data center, CoreWeave to take 15MW

Merlin Edged has launched a data center in Barcelona, Spain, that will be used by neocloud CoreWeave. The company plans to spend some $2.2 billion on expanding its data center infrastructure across Europe (alongside a $1.3bn UK push), including this Spanish facility.”This is our southern Europe region, which gives us the ability to feed any metro in the south within 20 to 30 milliseconds,” Mattacola said. “We may have some customers that train for a year or something, maybe less, and then they’re moving on to serving afterwards. But they can stay in this region.”

BDx secures funding for Hong Kong data center

Asia Pacific data center operator BDx Data Centers has secured funding for a data center project in Hong Kong. “We are pleased to finance BDx’s first dedicated hyperscale data center in Hong Kong. Green data centers are a promising growth area driven by the increasing demand for digital infrastructure and the growing global focus on sustainability,” added Lim Lay Wah, group head of Sector Solutions and Global Financial Institutions Group, at UOB.

STACK closes $1.4 billion financing facility

It takes the total amount of capital raised by the company to US$21 billion since its inception. US-headquartered hyperscale data centre provider STACK Infrastructure has closed a US$1.4 billion financing facility.

GIP–BlackRock, local partners plan to invest US$ 3–5 billion in Thailand; focus on Giga Data Centers

GIP–BlackRock, together with local partners, plans to invest US$ 3–5 billion (about THB 105–175 billion) in digital infrastructure in Thailand, with an emphasis on Giga Data Centers. These facilities will enable Thailand to support advanced workloads such as AI, big data, and cloud services, while generating high-value employment in engineering and technology, according to local daily, Bangkok Post. Prime Minister Paetongtarn expressed her commitment to accelerating infrastructure investments through improved ease of doing business, transparency, and public-private collaboration. She also highlighted the government’s support for partnerships with academia to strengthen digital capabilities and human capital in Thailand.