Data Center Investment News — 25/04/2025

KT Cloud selected as operator of Guro Data Center in South Korea

KT Cloud has been confirmed as the operator of the 30MW Guro Data Center currently under development in Seoul, South Korea. The facility, located at 166-2 Gae Bong Dong, is being developed by Capstone Asset Management following a contractor change. KT Cloud secured the “design, build, operation” contract and will lease 15 percent of the center for its own use. Construction began in February 2025 and is expected to complete by April 2028. The site spans 3,354 sqm with four underground and eight above-ground floors, totaling 19,225 sqm. The data center’s total IT capacity is projected to be 19.8MW.

SK Eco Plant will handle construction, while KT Cloud is responsible for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing works. The project was originally initiated by Lotte Engineering & Construction in 2021, but Capstone Asset Management took over in 2024 due to Lotte’s financial issues. The total project cost is estimated at 130 billion won ($914m), with Capstone investing 105 billion won ($738.2m). KT Cloud’s involvement as both operator and partial tenant highlights its growing footprint in South Korea’s data infrastructure landscape.

This announcement follows KT Cloud’s ongoing expansion in Seoul’s data center market. While the company has other facilities like the 26MW Gasan IDC in the Geumcheon District and existing cloud regions in Cheonan, Gimhae, and Los Angeles, the focus of this development underscores strategic partnerships and large-scale investment in digital infrastructure. The article emphasizes the shift in project leadership, major financial stakes, and KT Cloud’s dual role in operations and tenancy.

Khazna breaks ground on two data centers in Abu

Khazna has commenced construction on two new data centers in the UAE—AUH4 in Mafraq and AUH8 in Masdar City—adding a combined capacity of 60MW. AUH4 is expected to be completed by December 2026, while AUH8 is slated for August 2026. Both centers will feature modular design architecture to enhance construction efficiency and utilize adiabatic free cooling. The Mafraq facility was first announced in May 2024 and is being built on government-owned land.

CEO Hassan Alnaqbi highlighted the growing demand for AI-optimized infrastructure, stating, “The UAE economy is transforming rapidly… creating unprecedented capacity demand for AI-optimized infrastructure, and we’re proud to be meeting this demand.” This expansion follows the February 2024 launch of AUH6, a 31.8MW data center also located in Masdar City. Khazna, backed by G42, secured further investment in April 2025 from MGX and Silver Lake, who have now become minority shareholders.

In addition to the new UAE sites, Khazna is also developing QAJ1 in Ajman, which it claims will be the region’s first AI-optimized data center. Announced in October 2024, QAJ1 will offer 100MW of IT capacity, use liquid cooling, and meet Tier 3 standards. Construction is progressing, with steel structures completed and the first phase scheduled for delivery by December 2026.

775-acre data center campus proposed outside Indianapolis, Indiana

A major data center campus may soon be developed in Hancock County, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis. Real estate firm Surge Development is behind the proposal for a 775-acre site, referred to as the Hancock County MegaSite Planned Unit Development District. While the exact number of data centers is not confirmed, initial plans suggest the first phase could include five buildings and a substation. The site is located near 3400 West 500 N in Buck Creek Township, about 15 miles east of downtown Indianapolis.

Surge Development CEO Chris King emphasized the project’s national relevance, saying, “These folks are looking all over the country to locate these facilities… National security interests are supporting AI.” Though no end-user has been officially named, documents submitted with the proposal include images of Google data centers, hinting at a possible connection. The site is currently zoned for agriculture, but the Hancock County Comprehensive Plan does consider future industrial or manufacturing-related uses for the area.

Local pushback has emerged, notably from the owners of Tuttle Orchards, a long-standing family business dating back to 1890. In an open letter, they expressed concern that the development would “significantly alter the character of the area and negatively impact” the community. The project will be reviewed by the Hancock County Area Plan Commission during a meeting scheduled for May 27.

Oppidan files for data center in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Oppidan Investment Company is planning to build a new 90,000 sq ft (8,361 sqm), 10MW data center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The facility will be located along Daytona Road NW within the Westpointe 40 Business Park. Oppidan acquired the 10-acre site in September 2024 from Titan Development, which sold the land to attract suitable end-users. The general contractor, PARIC Corporation, expects the project to be completed by winter 2025.

Brian Patterson, a partner at Titan Development, stated the land sale aimed to “create jobs and strengthen the local economy.” Although the specific end-user for the Albuquerque facility hasn’t been disclosed, Oppidan has previously worked with clients such as Oracle, Bell Alliant, Sabey Corp, and unnamed telcos. The firm has been active in the data center space, with recent projects in Chicago, El Paso, Temple, Eagan, Apple Valley, Reno, and a 50MW site under development in Santa Clara, California.

Oppidan’s subsidiary, Connect Data Centers, reports having delivered 650MW and over 2.28 million sq ft of data center space across the U.S. since 2016, with an additional 720MW and 2.96 million sq ft currently in development. The Albuquerque data center will join a growing regional presence that includes operators like H5 and Centersquare, as well as Meta, which operates a campus in the area.

Stonepeak launches North American data center firm, Montera Infrastructure  

US investment firm Stonepeak has announced the launch of Montera Infrastructure, a new North American data center developer focused on building and operating hyperscale facilities. Backed by a $1.5 billion equity investment from Stonepeak, Montera aims to develop turnkey, build-to-suit data centers of 100MW or more across Tier I and II markets, targeting cloud computing and AI inferencing workloads. While no specific project locations have been disclosed yet, the firm will focus on rapid deployment and scalable infrastructure.

Montera is led by founder and CEO Eanna Murphy, formerly of Yondr and Google, with CTO Craig Pennington and CDO Joe Walsh, both with backgrounds at Oracle and Equinix. Murphy stated, “Montera was born from a simple conviction: the digital future demands infrastructure that is faster, smarter, and built with intent.” He emphasized Montera’s mission to deliver reliable and strategically located digital infrastructure to support hyperscale clients.

Stonepeak, with over $70 billion in assets under management, views this as its fourth North American and eighth global data center investment. Its portfolio includes more than 100 facilities and 500MW of capacity, with an additional 400MW+ in the pipeline. Andrew Thomas of Stonepeak highlighted the growing demand from AI and cloud advancements, noting Montera’s leadership team has delivered over 8GW of data center capacity and has played a key role in shaping hyperscaler infrastructure strategies.

NTT DATA and Neysa to build $1.26B AI data centre in Hyderabad

NTT DATA, in collaboration with Neysa Networks, has signed a major agreement with the Telangana government to build an AI-focused data centre cluster in Hyderabad, India. The project is valued at US$1.26 billion (₹10,500 crore) and will feature 400MW of computing capacity, making it one of the country’s most advanced supercomputing facilities. The announcement was made in Tokyo during Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s visit, where the agreement was signed in the presence of top executives from NTT and Neysa.

The facility will house 25,000 GPUs and cater to a wide range of AI workloads for public and private sectors. It will use a mix of grid and renewable energy sources, with total energy consumption expected to reach 500MW. Advanced cooling solutions like liquid immersion will be implemented to support the high-density infrastructure. The data centre will also be developed under strict ESG guidelines to ensure sustainable operations.

This investment builds on Hyderabad’s growing status as a data centre hub, following similar projects by AWS, CtrlS, STT, and Tillman Global Holdings. Sharad Sanghi, Chairman of NTT Global and CEO of Neysa, joined NTT executives Ken Katsuyama, Tadaoki Nishimura, and Alok Bajpai at the signing event. The project also aligns with NTT’s broader plans in India, which include the commissioning of the MIST (Malaysia, India, Singapore Transit) submarine cable system by June 2025.

FLOW Digital Infrastructures names new CEO to support growth strategy

FLOW Digital Infrastructure, a PAG-owned data center and digital infrastructure company in Asia Pacific, has appointed Sanjay Goel as its new CEO. Based in Singapore, Goel will lead the company’s strategic direction and operations. He brings over 30 years of experience in telecom, IT, and engineering, having previously served as EVP and President for Asia Pacific at American Tower and as President of Global Services and Operations at Nokia.

Goel emphasized the growing demand for data centers in Asia Pacific’s high-growth markets and FLOW’s intention to meet this with infrastructure that combines global standards and local expertise. Backed by PAG’s strong regional presence and real estate capabilities, FLOW plans to expand its operational scale and deepen stakeholder engagement. Phi Le, Partner and Co-head of Real Assets at PAG, praised Goel’s experience, calling him the ideal leader to drive FLOW’s continued growth.

In addition to Goel’s appointment, FLOW announced key leadership changes: Andrew Oon has been named Chief Commercial Officer, bringing over 22 years of industry experience, while Onno Reijgersberg joins as Chief Business Operations Officer with more than 20 years of global strategy execution experience. FLOW has developed six data center facilities in the region, with over 170MW of current and planned IT load capacity. The company operates with the support of PAG Real Assets, which manages over US$55 billion in assets, including a significant data center portfolio.

Dubai pushes digital infrastructure with du-Microsoft’s $544 million data centre deal

Dubai-based telco firm du has signed a 2 billion dirham (US$544.5 million) agreement with Microsoft to build and operate a hyperscale data centre, with Microsoft as the primary tenant. The deal, announced during Dubai AI Week (April 21-25), will see the data centre’s capacity delivered in phases. This partnership comes as du continues to expand its digital infrastructure, operating five data centres across the UAE.

The UAE’s data centre market, valued at around US$6 billion, is witnessing significant growth, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi being key locations. In addition to Microsoft, other global cloud providers such as AWS, Oracle, and Alibaba are increasing their presence in the region. du is also investing in the sector, recently partnering with PEACE Cable International Network to extend a submarine cable system and launching the UAE’s first 5G Voice over New Radio (VoNR) service.

Several major data centre projects are underway in the UAE, including a joint venture between France and the UAE to build a one-gigawatt data centre, expected to cost between US$30-50 billion. Gulf Data Hub, another regional player, secured US$5 billion in funding from KKR to expand its operations. Additionally, Microsoft has partnered with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement and Core42 to implement a sovereign cloud system.

NED breaks ground on Israeli data centre

Israeli data centre developer NED has broken ground on its Alpha Campus, a US$350 million AI and cloud data centre hub, located on Israel’s central Mediterranean coast, 20 km from Tel Aviv. The 35,000 sqm campus will provide 42MVA of power, with 18 MW available in its first phase, and is expected to become operational by Q4 2026. The project is being developed in partnership with Levinstein and is financed by UK-based Goldacre, which also has a stake in UK data centre Kao Data.

The Alpha Campus is designed to support both hyperscaler and enterprise clients, with negotiations already underway. As one of the first AI-ready data centres in Israel, it addresses the country’s need for infrastructure to support AI training and inference. NED’s CEO, Daniel Efrati, emphasized the campus’s robust security features, including being built 19 metres underground to withstand physical and cyber threats, with enhanced cooling efficiency benefiting from its underground design. The facility will also feature direct liquid cooling and other advanced cooling systems.

The new data centre is expected to serve as a global benchmark for sustainable and secure data centre design, with a market-leading PUE of 1.3. The strategic location of the campus in Israel, which links Asia, Europe, and Africa, positions it as a key connectivity hub. NED’s investment also capitalizes on the normalization of relations between Israel and several GCC countries, which could increase the country’s role as a critical data transit point for global connectivity.

DC BLOX appoints new COO amid leadership reshuffle

Digital infrastructure company DC BLOX has appointed Greg Carender as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) as the company expands its data centre and network operations across the Southeastern United States. CEO Jeff Uphues praised Carender’s leadership and his deep understanding of hyperscale customer needs and sustainable infrastructure, highlighting his track record in scaling mission-critical infrastructure globally. Carender replaces Mark Masi, who transitions into the newly created role of Chief Development Officer (CDO), where he will focus on land acquisition, energy procurement, tax incentives, and strategic partnerships.

Carender brings significant experience to his new role, having previously served as COO of AdaniConneX, a joint venture between India’s Adani Group and EdgeConneX. There, he oversaw the development and operations of large-scale data centres across India. With a background in construction management and consulting, Carender has worked on hyperscale data centre projects across multiple continents and will now lead DC BLOX’s engineering, construction, operations, IT, fibre development, and security efforts.

In his new role, Carender expressed excitement about accelerating DC BLOX’s growth, emphasizing the company’s strategic positioning and its potential to meet the increasing demand for hyperscale and enterprise infrastructure. He believes that with its ambitious pipeline and unique positioning, DC BLOX is poised to become a dominant player in digital infrastructure across the Southeast U.S.

Townsend Group backs CleanArc’s hyperscale data centre expansion with fresh funding