Equinix recently announced that it formed a joint venture with GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board with the intention of raising $15 billion to expand hyperscale data centers in the U.S. This strategic move was made by the quick growth of artificial intelligence and the cloud, and the companies plan on accelerating the Equinix xScale data center portfolio. This allows hyperscale companies to add core deployments to their current access point footprints at Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers.
“With the capital raised through the JV, Equinix expects the JV to purchase land to build new state-of-the-art xScale facilities on multiple greater-than-100-megawatt (MW) campuses in the U.S., eventually adding more than 1.5 gigawatts of new capacity for hyperscale customers.”
Adaire Fox-Martin, CEO and President at Equinix stated, "As the world's leading companies build out their infrastructure to support key workloads such as artificial intelligence, they require the combination of large-scale data center footprints optimized for AI training and interconnection nodes for the most efficient inferencing. Our xScale and IBX offerings are uniquely positioned to address this business need, enabling companies to realize the powerful potential of AI."
Goh Chin Kiong, Chief Investment Officer, Real Estate at GIC commented, "We are proud to expand our years-long partnership with Equinix, addressing a massive and growing demand for digital infrastructure, driven by the rapid advancement of technology, including AI. GIC's capital and scale, paired with Equinix's operational expertise, has driven meaningful value across our investments together. Through this joint venture, we look forward to providing the funding needed to develop state-of-the-art digital infrastructure across the U.S. alongside our likeminded partner, CPP Investments."
Max Biagosch, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Real Assets & Head of Europe for CPP Investments noted, "CPP Investments has invested in data centers for several years and we have developed strong expertise in this space. This investment will help meet the increasing demand for data centers driven by rapid technological advancements and marks a significant step forward in our broader data center strategy. We are pleased to partner with Equinix and GIC to deliver strong long-term risk-adjusted returns for the CPP Fund."
