Data Center Investment News — 24/02/2023
CapitaLand launches Chinese data centre fund
CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) has established a Chinese data centre development fund called CapitaLand China Data Centre Partners (CDCP).
CDCP has pledged to invest in two hyperscale data centre projects in Greater Beijing, and once completed, will add approximately S$1 billion to CLI’s management funds .
“We are seeing strong investor interest as the surge in demand for cloud computing, 5G technology, and e-commerce are driving growth in this sector. Leveraging our strength in real estate, we are actively building our capabilities in real assets and growing our alternative assets platform,” said Patrick Boocock, CEO of private equity alternative assets, CLI.
“CDCP is our third data centre development fund, following the establishment of two such funds in South Korea. We are excited to bring our capabilities to the China market and advance our ambition of becoming a major global digital infrastructure player.”
AirTrunk starts second phase construction of TOK2 data centre
AirTrunk has broken ground on the second phase of expansion of its AirTrunk TOK2 (TOK2) data centre in West Tokyo.
The ground breaking was marked by a special Jichinsai or ground-breaking ceremony performed by a Shinto Priest, that includes rituals to spiritually purify the site before construction.
The news comes three months after construction begun on the new data centre site in November 2022. Once operational, TOK2 will become the company’s eighth data centre, joining its rapidly expanding Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) network that includes SYD1, SYD2, SYD3 and MEL1 in Australia, SGP1 in Singapore, HKG1 in Hong Kong and TOK1 in Japan.
This latest phase will deliver approximately 50MW of capacity and be custom built to meet the needs of the cloud.
Princeton Digital Group to spend $1bn expanding into Malaysia and Indonesia
Princeton Digital Group (PDG) is investing $1 billion into expanding its data center footprint around Singapore with planned developments in Batam, Indonesia and Johor, Malaysia.
The project has been named the ‘SG+ strategy’, and will see the initial investment of $1bn go into a 96MW campus in Batam.
The Batam campus will be located in the Nongsa Digital Park. It will have four 24MW buildings located on a 15-acre parcel of land. According to the company, power has already been fully secured for the project.
Batam is a small island across the Singapore Strait in Indonesia’s Riau Islands Province, and is only 20km from Singapore. With real estate limited in Singapore, PDG said SG+ should provide a solution and enable customers to expand their infrastructure in any of the SG+ campuses. The likes of Data Center First and GDS are developing in the Nongsa park.
Equinix closes PA1 data center in Paris, signs pre-lease with Icade for new facility
Equinix has closed a data center in Paris and signed a new pre-leasing deal with French real estate firm Icade for a new development in the French capital.
In its Q4 2022 earnings report released last week, the colo firm said it closed PA1. Located at 167 Rue de la Belle Étoile, the purpose-built facility offered around 28,000 sq ft (2,600 sqm) of colocation space. The site operated as an IXEurope facility until Equinix acquired the company in 2007.
At the same time, Equinix has signed a pre-lease with Icade, which is developing a new data center for the company in Paris set to go live in 2025.
“Following the pre-let lease signed with Equinix, the project to convert office space into a data center in the Portes de Paris business park was included in the pipeline of projects launched,” Icade said in a post this week announcing full-year 2022 results.
Onix Data Centers expands into Dakar, Senegal
West African data center firm Onix is expanding into Senegal and offering colocation space in Dakar. The company said this week that the new data center is located at the 2Africa Cable Landing Station (CLS) in the city.
“The fully integrated neutral colocation facility gives customers the ability to connect to all submarine cables in Senegal (ACE, MainOne, 2Africa) in a wholesale environment,” the company said.
Specifications for the Onix facility were not shared. It is likely the company is leasing space in an existing Orange facility.
Sonatel and Orange worked with Main One (since acquired by Equinix) in 2018/2019 to build new landing stations in Dakar and Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire for the latter’s Portugal-to-South-Africa Main One Cable.
Techtonic planning 16MW underground data center in Bet Shemesh, Israel
Israeli firm Techtonic is to build an underground data center in Bet Shemesh, a city 20km east of Jerusalem. The company this week announced that it will build a new data center in Beit Shemesh’s Brosh industrial zone.
The 16MW facility – referred to as Titan 4 on the company’s LinkedIn – will be an underground facility expected to occupy an area of 15,000 square meters (161,450 sq ft) across 10 data halls and built to Tier IV standards.
Techtonic said it would be investing ‘hundreds of millions NIS’ ($55m+) in the project, and the facility will reportedly be able to survive a direct long-range missile hit.
The project is reportedly ‘in an advanced statutory stage aimed at receiving a full construction permit’ and currently estimated for completion in Q2 2025.
India’s Varanium launches containerized Edge data center in Kudal, Maharashtra
Indian digital technology firm Varanium Cloud has launched a new Edge data center in Maharashtra. The company launched a containerized data center in the town of Kudal in the Sindhudurg district this week under its Hydra Web Services unit.
Specifications weren’t shared, but images suggest the deployment is housed within three standard-sized shipping containers.
“We are thrilled to announce the successful launch of Hydra Web Services’ Containerised Edge Data Center in Kudal, Sindhudurg,” the company said on LinkedIn this week.
Another facility in Panjim, Goa launched at the end of December 2022. A third facility is due to launch in Mumbai at the end of March.
NE Edge proposes 1.5 million sq ft data center at nuclear power station in Connecticut
A new company is planning to develop a ~1.5 million sq ft (140,000 sqm) data center campus powered directly by a nuclear power station in Connecticut.
First reported by The Day and CT Examiner, NE Edge is requesting that Waterford Town officials consider a Host Municipality Agreement with the company to host data centers at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station in New London County.
“In cooperation with Dominion Energy, we are planning a two-building data center project at their Millstone site on Rope Ferry Road in Waterford,” the company said. “We are committed to providing Waterford with over $231 million dollars over 30 years as fees in lieu of the personal and real property taxes, which are exempted for data centers under the Connecticut law.”
NE Edge aims to build two hyperscale data centers on the Millstone site, using power directly from the Dominion facility in a ‘behind the meter’ agreement.
TikTok to Open Two Data Centers in Europe
TikTok, a Chinese social media company, intends to establish two new data centers in Europe, which might allay worries about the security of user data and lessen regulatory pressure on the company, according to a senior executive.
TikTok has been attempting to reassure governments and authorities that users’ personal information cannot be accessed and that its content cannot be altered by China’s Communist Party or anybody else working for Beijing.
According to Rich Waterworth, general manager for operations in Europe at TikTok, the short video sharing app, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, wants to increase the amount of data it stores in Europe.
“We are at an advanced stage of finalizing a plan for a second data center in Ireland with a third-party service provider, in addition to the site announced last year,” said Waterworth.
Mexico to launch data centre association in bid for new investment
Mexico has announced the latest data centre association in the world in a bid to promote and entice digital infrastructure investment into the country.
The Mexican Data Centre Association (MEXDC) counts with seven founding members which signed the articles of incorporation in Santiago de Querétaro, a region that has seen the arrival of several data centres from different national and global companies.
The members include Ascenty, DCD, Equinix, Layer9 Data Centers, Odata, Scala Data Centers and KIO. The MEXDC will be officially launched on 22 March in Mexico City.
The Board of Directors of the Mexican Data Center Association is formed by Amet Novillo as president, Alejandro Cantú as vice president, Jose Luis Friebel as secretary general. And as members Arturo Bravo, Santiago Suinaga, Carlos Forero and Dax Simpson.
Yotta partners with Bangladeshi group to develop $190m Dhaka hyperscale data centre park
India digital infrastructure operator Yotta Data Services, part of the Hiranandani Group, has announced a partnership with Bangladesh’s Shamsul Alamin Group (SAG) to support the company’s foray and expansion of its business in the country.
Under the partnership, the Shamsul Alamin Group will extend its real estate experience, along with its market leadership, to help Yotta identify the opportunities and jointly tap Bangladesh’s emerging digital transformation market.
Yotta has earmarked an investment of over Tk2000 crore (US$186 million) to develop its Hyperscale Data Center Park in the capital Dhaka in the next four to six years.
The park will house two hyperscale data centre buildings, featuring 4800 racks and 28.8MW IT power capacity. The first phase of the project is scheduled to go online in Q3 of FY2024.
Philippines’ PLDT mulls $800m data centre platform sale
The Philippines telecommunications and digital infrastructure operator PLDT Inc. (NYSE: PHI) is reportedly mulling the partial sale of its data centre portfolio.
The transaction could fetch between US$700 million and US$800 million and comes as the group continues to struggle with spending overrun which has sent stock prices plunging by 19%.
According to people familiar with the matter speaking to Bloomberg, PLDT, which also considered a sale in 2021, is already working with financial advisers as it weighs bringing in an investor into its data centre business
The capital injection would release needed cash for further expansion of the company’s VITRO Data Center portfolio which today counts 10 colocation facilities in the Philippines.
Equinix grows REIT’s Irish exec team with new MD
Digital infrastructure REIT Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) has appointed Peter Lantry as its Managing Director for Ireland.
The executive has been tasked with leading Equinix’s business in Ireland, working closely with customers to support their growth and targets as data volumes continue to rise, whilst driving the environmental and community engagement initiatives.
Lantry has joined Equinix from Hitachi Energy, where he was Country Managing Director and Global Data Centre Lead with a focus on developing sustainable energy solutions for the industry.
He has nearly two decades’ experience in senior managerial and director roles in large enterprises in technology and the Irish energy sector. He has also previously held the position of Head of Interconnection at EirGrid, where he ran the High Voltage Direct Current interconnection business.