New Data Center Developments: March 2024

The demand for new data centers isn't showing any sign of slowing. With new projects being announced each week, keeping track of the latest data center developments is not always easy.

To keep you informed about the latest data center news involving design, construction, and related developments, we bring you the highlights from the past month.

This curated selection will help you stay on top of the latest data center development news with ease.

North American Data Center Deals

Expedient, the US-based cloud provider, has announced the addition of a former Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company data center to its portfolio. Located near Columbus, Ohio, the 102,000 sq.ft facility is Expedient’s 15th data center in the US and its fifth in Ohio.

Also in the Midwest,Aligned Data Centersis planning to buildtwo new data centersin the Chicago metro area. According to theDaily Herald, the data centers will occupy more than a million square feet, forming part of a $285 million project.

Prime Data Centers is hoping to build a $1.3 billion data center campus in Caldwell County, Texas, the Austin Business Journal reported. Officials are due to discuss the proposal on March 12. 

More North American Data CenterDevelopments

Related:Hyperscalers in 2024: Where Next For the World’s Biggest Data Center Operators?

Latin America Data Center News

Chile

InLatin Americandata center news this month,Hurricane Electric, the IPv6-native Internet backbone and colocation provider, has opened a new point of presence at the Ascenty SCL2 facility in Santiago, Chile.

The Ascenty SCL2 data center is located 20km from Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport and is one of Ascenty’s three data centers in the city.

Mexico

ODATAis expanding in Mexico with two new data center campuses, QE02 and QR03.

“The demand for IT infrastructure and cloud services in Mexico is booming, and we're committed to being a reliable partner for businesses looking to grow and innovate in this region,” said CEO Andrew Schaap in aLinkedIn post.

Staying in Mexico,Amazonis planning to launch anew infrastructure regionin the country. The upcoming AWS Mexico (Central) Region forms part of the cloud giant’s $5 billion, 15-year investment plan in Mexico.

European Data Center Developments

Related:New Data Center Developments: February 2024

Germany

InEurope, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed an announcement by Microsoft that it would invest almost $3.5 billion in Germany to expand its data center capabilities.

On X, Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith wrote of the company’s single largest German investment:

“Microsoft is committed to enabling companies across the German economy to use AI to remain at the cutting edge of global competitiveness. This €3.2 billion investment will double Microsoft’s AI infrastructure and cloud capacity to meet the country’s accelerating demand for AI services and offer digital skills training for more than 1.2 million Germans by the end of 2025.”

Datacenter One, the Germany-based provider of colocation services acquired by AtlasEdge in February 2023, has announced the opening of a new data center in Hamburg. 

“With the opening of HAM1, Datacenter One continues its rapid success story of developing regional data centers to serve customers throughout Germany, one of Europe’s fastest-growing markets for localized digital infrastructure,” the company said.  

Also in Germany, sustainable building group Peri 3D Construction has completed what is purportedly the largest 3D printed building in Europe, which will be used as a data center. 

With construction now complete, the ‘Wavehouse’ facility in Heidelberg will be turned into a data management and cloud services center, operated by Heidelberg IT Management. 

France

In France, construction firm Mercury has announced the handover of Digital Realty’s PAR9 data center, marking a “significant milestone” in the ongoing development of the operator’s Paris Digital Park. 

Meanwhile, NTT, the IT infrastructure and services company, announced the development of its first Paris-based data center campus. As part of a larger data center expansion, this follows the company’s recent announcements of plans for campuses in Virginia and Chennai, India.

A new data center has been inaugurated on CERN’s Prévessin site in France, marking the completion of a major project for the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s computing strategy. 

Spanning more than 6,000 sq.m and featuring six rooms for IT equipment with a cooling capacity of 2 MW each, the center will host CPU servers for physics data processing as well as other hardware for business continuity and disaster recovery. 

UK

Over in the UK, Virtus Data Centres has announced plans for a new campus in Saunderton, Buckinghamshire. The current design comprises four data centers capable of delivering IT capacity of 75 MW to meet the escalating demand from cloud and AI applications.  

Global Switchhas received full planning approval for its third London data center. Once complete, the 27,000 sq.m London South facility will offer 40 MW of IT power capacity and complement the company’s existing London East and London North data centers. 

Private equity firm Starwood Capital Group is investing $850 million in Echelon Data Centres. The move is aimed at allowing the operator to further expand in Ireland and the UK. 

Echelon currently has 140 MW of capacity that is either operational or in late-stage construction, including a fully pre-committed 91 MW hyperscale campus in Dublin. 

Norway

Finally, in Norway,Skanskahas signed a contract withWS Computingfor preparatory groundwork on a new,$96 million data centerin Telemark.

Asia-Pacific Data Centers Builds

InAsia-Pacificdata center news this month, several private equity firms have reportedly been picked to submit binding bids to take part in a potential $1 billion funding round in STT Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC). 

Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, and Stonepeak Partners are among those shortlisted for the fundraising by STT GDC, the Singaporean digital infrastructure provider backed by state-owned investor Temasek Holdings. 

Indonesia

Bitera – an affiliate of the MMS Group Indonesia – has announced the operational readiness of its data center in Jakarta.  

The nine-story facility boasts a critical IT load of 20 MW covering more than 8,600 square meters of colocation space, accommodating up to 4,000 racks. 

The news came as reports surfaced that Telkom Indonesia was planning to sell shares in its data center business to fund the unit's local and global expansion. 

India

In India,Ishan Technologies has launched a new data center in Mumbai. The Mumbai Ishan DC-1 facility will offer “flexible colocation configurations, including single rack, split racks, caging, or any modular solution.” 

Meanwhile,Tower SemiconductorandTata Grouphave proposedmultibillion-dollar chip fabrication projects.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the nation’s first cloud data center began operations this week. Known as Meghna Cloud, the facility is a joint venture between Bangladesh Data Centre Company Limited (BDCCL) and Gennext Technologies. As part of the agreement, Gennext is planning to invest $500 million in the project over the next five years.

Japan

Lastly,Yondr Group has struck a deal with Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation to bring a series of data centers to Japan. The new partnership will focus on delivery of an initial 3 GW site in western Tokyo with the intention of additional sites being added in the near future. 

Other Asia-Pacific Data Center Developments

Africa Data Center Investments

Teraco Data Environments, Africa’s largest data center company, is building a utility-scale power plant to run its operations in South Africa. 

The firm raised an initial ZAR2 billion ($104 million) with Absa Group for the construction of a 120 MW solar plantand an 80 MW wind farm in South Africa’s Free State province, which will power its facilities and help deal with rolling blackouts.

Nasdaq-listedEquinix will invest $390 million in Africa over the next five years, building data centers and expanding current operations in South Africa and the west of the continent.

The data center operator is also pursuing opportunities in East Africa and will potentially spend more to build or acquire there, recently appointed managing director for South Africa, Sandile Dube, said in an interview. 

And finally, while Ethiopia might seem like an unlikely place to set up crypto-mining operations, cheap electricity and favorable regulations areattracting investors, according toBloomberg.