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New Data Center Developments: May 2024
We look at some of the latest data center developments that have been announced over the past month.
James Walker
May 6, 2024
7 Min Read
A digital impression of Data4’s planned Mil02 campus in Milan.Data4 / Bloomberg
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
AWS unveiled plans to invest $11 billion in constructing a data center complex in Indiana, the largest capital investment in the state’s history. According to Amazon, the investment will create an estimated 1,000 jobs.
“Indiana’s long-term economic strategy is paying dividends for Hoosiers as we cultivate the growth of critical sectors like technology infrastructure,” said Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb.
Google is also planning to develop a $2 billion data center in Indiana and invest a further $1 billion to expand some of its facilities in Virginia.
In Austin, Texas, Prime Data Centers is planning to build a $1.3 billion turnkey data center campus, as reported by the Austin Business Journal.
Microsoft and OpenAI are reportedly in discussion to create a new data center in the US. According to a report in The Information, the facility could cost more than $100 billion and would house an AI supercomputer called Stargate.
DataBank completed the lease buy-back of 7185 Pollock Drive in Las Vegas, which houses its LAS1 data center. The facility was recently expanded to 36,800 sq.ft and 3.55 MW of critical IT load power.
Elsewhere, a former Hertz data center in Oklahoma and a former Truist data center in North Carolina are up for sale.
Ardent Data Centers broke ground on an upgrade to its Pittsburgh data center, while Tract started work on its Peru Shelf Technology Park project in Storey County, Nevada.
More North American data center news:
Canadian telco Rogers Communications is planning to put some or all of its data centers on the market in an effort to erase a billion dollars of post-merger debt.
In New Castle, Delaware, colocation provider DāSTOR acquired a 60,000 sq.ft facility with a capacity of 8 MW.
Digital Realty announced the expansion of its Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) initiative to the US, following its success in Europe where it is used in over 20 sites. HVO is a renewable fuel that replaces conventional diesel in generators and will now be available at sites in California and Oregon.
Latin American Data Center Developments
Brazilian data center and fiber network V.tal inaugurated its second edge data center in Colombia. According to Latin American business insight firm BN Americas, the $20 million BDC2 facility has a total power capacity of 3 MW and space for up to 200 racks.
Telxius is opening its latest submarine cable route with the extension of SAm-1 between Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. The route opened in April and serves as a vital link between the Caribbean and the US.
ODATA, a subsidiary of Aligned Data Centers, announced the expansion of its operations in Mexico. The company’s QR01 data center in Querétaro will be expanded to meet the growing demand for IT infrastructure and cloud services in the region.
The company has also started to build two new data center campuses in Mexico.
European Data Center Developments
In Europe, Blackstone has been selected to purchase the former Britishvolt power station in the north of England where it plans to build what could become Europe’s largest data center.
The proposed deal would see Blackstone’s funds acquire the land for about £20 million ($25 million), followed by phased payments of as much as £110 million ($138 million) that will flow to the local government once planning and power have been secured, leases have been signed and construction completed.
Ireland’s national independent planning body, An Bord Pleanála, approved plans for Art Data Centres’ 200 MW €1.2 billion data center campus in Ennis. In the face of environmental concerns, progress on the campus has been slow going. After six years in the zoning and planning stages, construction is expected to take another six.
Data4 plans to create a new campus in Milan called ‘Mil02’ to expand its Italian reach. The operator purchased an 829,000 sq.ft parcel of land where it will build eight data centers. The facility will be its second investment in Italy, after setting up another center that’s also close to Milan.
Belgian data center operator LCL announced a plan to add a fifth data center to the region's “most connected” data center campus, LCL Brussels-North, with a €30 million investment.
Staying in Belgium, Google broke ground on a new data center campus in one of the nation’s poorest municipalities. The three-building, €1 billion campus will cover 570,500 sq.ft and offer a capacity of 200-300 MW. In a sustainable twist, conditions attached to the planning permit require 90% of the energy consumed by the campus to be carbon-free by 2025 and 95% by 2030.
In France, European construction company Mercury will lead the expansion of Digital Realty’s Paris Digital Park. Once complete, the campus is expected to hold 39,000 sq.m of white space and 76 MW of power.
Vantage Data Centers announced plans to open its second Zurich campus, ZRH2, this summer. The 226,000 sq.ft campus will support high-performance computing applications for Vantage’s hyperscale and cloud customers.
AtlasEdge, meanwhile, has marked its entry into the Portuguese market through the acquisition of two adjacent sites in Lisbon that will deliver more than 20 MW of IT load.
Google started construction on a €600 million site in Groningen, Netherlands. Supported by existing power purchase agreements, Google expects to operate Dutch data centers and offices on more than 90% carbon-free energy in 2024.
More European Data Center News this month:
Vantage Data Centers announced its entry into the Irish data center market with a new facility in Dublin. Dubbed DUB1, the 405,000 sq.ft flagship campus is expected to be operational in late 2024 with 52 MW of IT capacity.
Oracle partnered with TIM Group to create a new cloud region in Italy. TIM will host Oracle’s second cloud region in the country through its network of data centers.
NTT Data unveiled plans to develop and operate its third data center in Berlin, Germany.
Asia-Pacific Data Centers Builds
In Asia-Pacific data center news this month, Microsoft is planning to build a new cloud and AI infrastructure region in Thailand, provide AI skilling opportunities for over 100,000 people, and support the nation’s growing developer community.
“Thailand has an incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” said Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. “Our new data center region, along with the investments we are making in cloud and AI infrastructure, as well as AI skilling, build on our long-standing commitment to the country.”
Microsoft also unveiled plans to invest $2.9 billion into AI data centers in Japan by 2025, the company’s largest investment in the country to date. According to Nikkei Asia, Microsoft will install AI semiconductors in two of Japan's existing data centers as well as develop a new lab in Tokyo for AI research and development.
In Indonesia, the tech giant pledged to invest $1.7 billion to build out cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure, betting on Southeast Asia’s biggest economy to spur growth.
Also in Indonesia, Nvidia and PT Indosat are understood to be planning an ‘AI center’ in Central Java worth $200 million.
Elsewhere, AdaniConnex, a joint venture between Adani Enterprises and Edge Connex, secured $875 million to build data centers in India.
SK Hynix announced a $14.6 billion investment to build a new memory chip complex in Cheongju, South Korea. The chipmaker plans to break ground at the end of April and complete construction by November 2025.
In Malaysia, Axis Real Estate Investment Trust sold a former steel complex in Johor to an unnamed data center operator.
“Given the favorable price of this asset sale and leveraging on the best and highest use of the property as a data center development, this is an opportune time to dispose of the property, and to redeploy the capital towards potential yield-accretive properties,” said the company.
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