- Equinix and PGIM Real Estate today announced a US$575 million (A$772.5 million) limited liability partnership to develop and operate two xScale data centres in Sydney
- The first xScale data centre in Sydney, SY9x, is set to launch in the first quarter of 2022
- According to the terms of the agreement, PGIM Real Estate will own an 80 per cent equity stake in the joint venture, while Equinix will own the remaining 20 per cent
- Equinox CEO Charles Meyers says as digital transformation accelerates, hybrid multi-cloud is becoming the IT infrastructure of choice
Equinix and PGIM Real Estate, the real estate arm of Prudential Financial’s global asset management business, today announced a US$575 million (A$772.5 million) limited liability partnership to develop and operate two xScale data centres in Sydney.
The joint venture’s facilities, dubbed SY9x and SY10x, are projected to deliver more than 55 megawatts (MW) of power capacity to meet the core workload deployment demands of a select set of hyperscale enterprises, including the world’s top cloud service providers.
The first xScale data centre in Sydney, SY9x, is set to launch in the first quarter of 2022.
Structure Research head of research Jabez Tan said Australia was set to build its next wave of capacity, with the hyperscale market expected to grow at about double the rate of the retail segment by 2026.
“There have been unprecedented levels of cloud adoption in the country,” he said.
“Equinix’s expansion into Australia’s hyperscale market is a timely move to address the aggressive demand among hyperscalers in Australia and will further accelerate digital transformation in the country.”
Equinix is Australia’s largest data centre provider, with 17 International Business ExchangeTM data centres, which will rise to 18 when the PE3 data centre in Perth opens later this year.
According to the terms of the agreement, PGIM Real Estate will own an 80 per cent equity stake in the joint venture, while Equinix will own the remaining 20 per cent.
The joint venture is anticipated to conclude in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions.
When combined with Equinix’s current hyperscale joint ventures in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, the global xScale data centre portfolio would total more than $7.5 billion over 34 sites, with an estimated power capacity of more than 675 MW when completed and completely developed.
Equinox CEO Charles Meyers said as digital transformation accelerated, hybrid multi-cloud was becoming the IT infrastructure of choice.
“These companies recognize that digital infrastructure is a source of competitive advantage, and they are leveraging Platform Equinix to directly connect and operate close to the largest cloud companies powering this infrastructure,” he said.