Data Center Investment News — 8/09/2023
Indonesia Investment Authority and GDS to launch nationwide data centre platform
China’s data centre operator Global Data Solutions (GDS) and the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, have entered into a partnership to co-invest in a data centre platform in the South Asian country.
As part of their collaboration, GDS and INA are planning to establish an equity joint venture (JV) to develop a nationwide data centre footprint.
The first project under this venture is an ongoing development of a hyperscale data centre campus in Nongsa Digital Park (NDP), Batam.
This site has been officially recognised as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by the Indonesian government.
Ridha Wirakusumah, CEO of INA, said: “Indonesia’s vibrant digital potential is a testament to its rapid economic growth and remarkable strides in active digital infrastructure development. The significant internet penetration rate, coupled with the rise of various digital platforms, indicates the vast opportunities ahead of us.”
INA is actively streamlining foreign direct investments throughout Indonesia with a targeted approach to enhance Batam’s competitive advantage.
PE-backed BDx Data Centers pulls in Microsoft boss to oversee business growth
I Squared Capital-backed BDx Data Centers has appointed Manish Prakash as President and Chief Business Officer.
He has been charged with overseeing the business and growth strategy and will lead all Commercial, Marketing and Channel functions across the company’s multiple markets globally.
He has 25+ years of executive leadership in turnarounds, building sustainable organisations and digital transformation across leading global technology and telecom firms, the company said.
In his most recent role, Manish served as the Asia-Pacific Managing Director for Microsoft’s Regulated Industries – Energy, Critical Infrastructure, Healthcare, Education and Public Sector.
Prior to Microsoft, Manish served as the SVP & Head of Telenor Global Enterprise division and led the B2B Enterprise business across Nordic countries and Asia.
He has also served as the President for Airtel Business/Enterprise and held senior leadership roles at Accenture, SK Group, and Tech Mahindra.
CloudHQ to invest $340m in Rio de Janeiro data centre
US-based data centre group CloudHQ is gearing up to invest a massive 1.7bn reais (US$344 million) to develop a data centre campus in Rio de Janeiro, as announced by the state government.
The new data centre will be situated in Sao Joao de Meriti, a key metropolitan region in Rio.
The project footprint covers an expansive 11 acres of land, and the planned IT capacity is set to reach 36MW.
The company has already secured a power supply agreement for this new facility, according to local reports.
The project is slated to be operational by September 2025.
In addition to boosting the digital infrastructure, the project is expected to create nearly 400 direct and indirect job opportunities in the region, contributing to the local economy.
DigitalBridge’s flagship LATAM operator to build $80m Mexico data centre
DigitalBridge-backed (NYSE: DBRG) LATAM operator Scala Data Centers has unveiled plans to build its first facility in Mexico.
The venture, which represents a capital expenditure of US$80 million, will see the initial deployment of 5MW of capacity at the campus located in the municipality of Tepotzotlán, roughly 25 miles from the country’s capital in Mexico City (CDMX).
Scala’s new site, dubbed SMEXTP01, is projected to begin operations in Q4 2023 and is already anchored by “a large hyperscale client”, the group said.
With 142,133 sqft/13, 200 sqm of built area, the centre will be supplied with 100% renewable and certified energy.
Mexico has a relevant and strategic position in the IT infrastructure segment. As the second largest data centre and cloud market in Latin America after Brazil, the country has robust growth rates of around 22% and 25% per year, respectively, and expanding connectivity infrastructure.
Currently, there are 11 submarine cables connecting Mexico to the United States and the rest of the Americas.
I Squared Capital’s nLighten leads on with UK digital infrastructure M&A
I Squared Capital’s digital infrastructure platform nLighten has completed the acquisition of Proximity Data Centres.
Proximity is a regional player in the UK with ten edge data centres in Birmingham, Bridgend, Bristol, Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Rugby and Swindon.
According to nLighten, Proximity’s data centres “fit well within nLighten’s strategy” of integrating data centres into regional markets.
The portfolio’s sustainability design also aligns with nLighten, which aims to reduce the environmental footprints of its data centres.
Proximity’s ten data centres currently source 100% of their electricity from renewables.
The company added that given the evolving standards for data sovereignty in Europe, nLighten plans to keep the operational management of its data centres in the UK.
VIRTUS Data Centres unveils $3.2bn Central Europe mega AI project
VIRTUS Data Centres (VIRTUS) has unveiled plans to develop a €3 billion (US$3.24 billion) mega data centre campus in Germany to meet the demands of new Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workloads.
The ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Group-backed company said the project will amount to 300MW across two campus locations and will be located in the Berlin Brandenburg data centre region.
The VIRTUS Wustermark Data Centre Campus, 30 kilometres from Brandenburger Tor, the 350,000 square metres/3.77 million square feet campus will be built in phases with the first one due to be brought online by 2026.
The facilities have been designed to targetf hyperscale, government and enterprise customers.
The development includes a collaboration with the grid operator to use renewable energy at a “key renewable energy grid supply point”.
The campus will also capitalise on electrical coupling to some of the largest contiguous onshore wind farms in the country that contribute to its power supply.
DataBank expands portfolio to 379MW of data centre power
US data centre operator DataBank has completed not one, not two but seven data centre expansions across several US cities.
The group’s construction wave has been completed at facilities in Dallas, Las Vegas, San Diego, Irvine, and Kansas City, and Atlanta. Atlanta saw the expansion of two sites.
Combined, these colocation facilities have added 15+ megawatts of power and 114,000 raised square feet of floor space during the past 12 months.
Across the US, DataBank, which is backed by digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG), has established 74 data centres less than 50 miles from 70% of the U.S. population that offer a combined 2.79 million square feet of raised floor space and 379 megawatts of power for critical IT loads.
Tony Qorri, the DataBank Vice President of Construction, said: “For organisations planning to deploy, or for existing customers already set up in these data centres, these expansions give them more room to grow.
“They can avoid the hassle of moving to a new data centre when it is time to scale their compute resources.”
Ground broken on geothermal-powered data center in Kenya
Ground has been broken on the Ecocloud Data Centre at the KenGen Green Energy Park in Olkaria, Kenya.
Once completed, the Ecocloud facility will reportedly be powered entirely by geothermal energy which, according to energy provider KenGen, will be the first of its kind in Africa.
The data center will also be the first client at the KenGen Green Energy Park, a development on a geothermal field that is planned to accommodate a variety of industrial and non-industrial activities while providing low power tariffs.
Geothermal energy is stored in the form of heat below the earth’s surface. Power plants associated with it often use the steam generated by the reservoirs of hot water below the surface to produce electricity.
Microsoft breaks ground on $1bn data center in Wisconsin
Microsoft has broken ground on a $1 billion data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
Plans for the facility were first announced in March 2023 at the 315-acre parcel of land at 90th Street and Highway KR, which was previously set aside for a Foxconn manufacturing hub.
The development was first reported by the Milwaukee Business Journal (MBJ). Along with the groundbreaking process, Microsoft has also announced that the lead contractor for the project will be Walsh Construction.
Excavation is currently underway at the site, and development of the foundations is set to start this fall. According to MBJ, the data center should be completed in 2026 and begin operations by the end of that year.
The project is expected to have a “significant impact” on the local economy and to provide thousands of construction jobs. The site was previously the location of some local grievances after Foxconn purchased the land in 2017 with plans for a manufacturing facility that would generate over 10,000 jobs. In the following years, however, the Foxconn project only delivered 1,454 jobs and investment in the site had fallen far below what Foxconn previously promised: $672.8 million, rather than $10 billion.
Google announces plans for Red Oak data center campus in Texas
Google is to build a second Texas campus in the Red Oak area of Dallas.
The company announced this week it plans to invest $600 million in developing its second data center site in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.
The search, advertising, and cloud firm said it will invest an initial $330 million in the Ellis County project this year, with plans for the data center’s final cost rising to at least $600 million over multiple years.
Lee McCleary, director of economic development for Red Oak, told the Dallas Morning News that the data center at 156 N. Austin Blvd. will be about 285,000 square feet and take two years to build.
Google built a data center in the Midlothian area of DFW in 2019 through its Alamo Mission LLC shell company under the project name Sharka. After buying 375-acres, the company acquired another 165-acre tract for further development.
Google launched a Texas cloud region in Dallas in June 2022.
Investment firm CapMan Infra acquires Danish colocation firm Fuzion
Investment firm CapMan Infra has acquired Danish data center colocation firm Fuzion.
The deal, made via CapMan Nordic Infrastructure II fund, was announced this week. Terms of the acquisition were not shared.
Established in 2001, Fuzion offers colocation services, operating out of four data centers in the Jutland region of Denmark in Skanderborg, Viby J., Aarhus, and Randers. The company is also expanding to a new location in Copenhagen.
Fuzion will join CapMan’s data center platform, currently consisting of Dutch IT services provider Serverius.
CapMan said Fuzion’s current co-owner and CEO Christian Holm Christensen will re-invest in the wider platform and continue in his position as Fuzion’s CEO.
“We are happy to welcome Fuzion to our Northern European data center platform as it complements our recent investment in Serverius well,” said Harri Halonen, partner at CapMan Infra. “We are also very glad to have Christian Holm Christensen co-invest alongside us, showing his strong commitment to delivering on the growth that we see for Fuzion in this market. Christian and his team have positioned Fuzion well for continued growth in Denmark, and Fuzion represents a great fit to our wider northern European platform.”
Indian real estate firm Anant Raj to move into data center business, plans 300MW footprint
Indian real estate development firm Anant Raj is to move into the data center business.
On its social media and in the local press, the company has announced plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore ($1.2 billion) in developing up to 300MW of capacity in the county. The company has established a subsidiary named Anant Raj Cloud Pvt. Ltd. to manage its data center operations.
Founded in 1969, Anant Raj is a real estate development firm. The company has traditionally focused on residential, commercial, retail, and hospitality projects, though has been part of several Technology Park projects.
The three technology buildings – in Manesar, Rai, and Panchkula, all in the state of Haryana – are set to be retrofitted into data centers.
The Manesar site already has 3MW in operation and 3MW coming online soon. The full 21MW will be offered across 450,000 sq ft (41,800 sqm) across two floors. Sat on 11 acres, the Manesar Tech Park totals 1.8 million sq ft.
TikTok opens data center in Dublin, Ireland
TikTok has launched its long-planned Dublin data center.
The Irish facility is its first in Europe, and will be used to store the user data of those living on the continent.
The data center is set to be joined by another in Ireland and a Green Mountain facility in Norway. The latter project involves three buildings with 90MW of capacity by November 2023, with the option to extend capacity by up to 150MW by 2025.
The initial $500 million Irish facility was first announced in 2020, with the company planning to launch in early 2022. But the project, believed to be an Echelon data center, was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition to latency considerations, TikTok-owner ByteDance plans to keep its European user data within the continent as part of ‘Project Clover’ to assuage Western governmental fears about the Chinese company’s access to data.
In the US, it has ‘Project Texas,’ a similar effort but in partnership with Oracle. The company denies that customer data is sent to China.
EdgeConneX files for new 1 million sq ft data center campus in Mesa, Arizona
EdgeConneX is looking to expand its presence in Phoenix, Arizona, with a new data center campus.
BizJournal reports the company has applied through Mesa’s administrative review and design review to build a multi-phased campus near Elliot Road and Loop 202.
EdgeConneX is seeking to build a three-building campus totaling more than 1 million sq ft (92,900 sqm) – as well as an on-site substation – on 93 acres of land. Built over three phases, the facilities would serve a range of clients – from colocation to single-tenant.
The company has owned the land since 2017 through Loop 202 & Elliot Road LLC. A 2018 report suggested at the time the company was planning a 30MW development with two data halls.
Prior to EdgeConnex, the land parcel was designated to be the site of Gateway Super Regional Center, a planned retail and employment hub, but the project never materialized.
Edged Energy files to develop data center in Irving, Texas
Data center firm Edged Energy is planning to develop a data center in Dallas, Texas.
In a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Edged Dallas LLC is looking to develop a 162,545 sq ft (15,100 sqm) data center at 505 N Wildwood Drive in Irving. The project is named ‘Edged DFW Data Center’.
“The scope of development involves modifications to an existing warehouse. The project aims to incorporate data processing halls, along with accompanying office facilities and essential electrical and mechanical components,” the filing states.
The company aims to invest $35 million in the Dallas County project, which will run from September 2023 to November 2024.
Originally known as Loop12, the existing warehouse facility was built by Johnson Development and completed last year.
Extreme Networks Launches New Data Center in UAE for Faster and Secure Data
Extreme Networks, Inc., a leader in cloud networking, has just opened a new data center in the UAE. This center helps businesses in the region send data faster, access cloud services easily, and keep data safe. It uses AI and machine learning with the Extreme Cloud IQ platform to make things more efficient and follow local data laws
This new data center is one of 18 Extreme Networks around the world. It includes the Extreme CloudIQ platform, which gives insights and information about networks. This helps organizations work better, see how well their network is doing, and fix problems.
In the UAE, there is a growing need for data centers because companies want more cloud computing, better online services, and the ability to work from anywhere. In 2022, a new law required stricter data protection, and the government wants to use cloud services more. Extreme’s data center is important because it ensures that services are fast, secure, and follow the rules about data.