Global digital infrastructure provider, Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), provided details this week on its $3bn xScale data centre construction programme. This included projects currently under development in Europe and Japan, backed by two $1bn joint venture agreements inked in 2019 and 2020 between Equinix and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC.
On 1 March, the Japan-focused JV opened Asia’s first xScale data centre in Tokyo. Dubbed TY12x, the hypercale data centre has already secured a tenant to fill its phase one capacity and a significant proportion of phase two.
Equinix’s xScale data centres are designed to meet the capacity requirements of a targeted group of so called “hyperscale” companies. These include some of the world’s largest cloud service provider, such as Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
TY12x will provide more than 186,000 square feet (about 17,300 square meters) of colocation space and will support 54 megawatts of power to its tenants when all phases are complete.
In addition to TY12x, Equinix is building an xScale data centre in Osaka. OS2x is expected to open in Q4 2021 and Equinix plans to develop one more xScale data centre in Japan in the near future. Together the three centres are expected to deliver approximately 138 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers in Japan.
GIC hold an 80% equity share in the Japan-focused JV.
Meanwhile, the Europe-focused joint venture opened its second xScale data centre in Paris in February. The PA9x centre is fully leased by a single hyperscale tenant and will provide more than 29,600 square feet (about 2,750 square meters) of space and support 10 megawatts of power.
Equinix currently have six xScale facilities operating or under development in Europe. Collectively, these sites will have the capacity to deliver approximately 106 megawatts of power once all are operational. PA8x opened in Paris in early 2019 and was sold into the JV upon completion of the agreement in late 2019.
LD13x, an upgrade of part of Equinix’s LD10 facility, was opened in London in late 2019, and LD11x opened this February. The JV is developing two further centres in Frankfurt, FR9x and FR11x, which are expected to open in Q4 2021 and Q2 2022, respectively.
