GIC backs $525m Korea data centre program
Singapore’s GIC has teamed up with digital infrastructure company Equinix with a view to investing USD 525m in the development of two data centres in Korea.
GIC and Equinix will respectively take 80% and 20% equity interests in the joint venture, which will also operate the facilities, both in Seoul. It expands Equinix’s xScale data centre portfolio 36 facilities in various stages of development, representing a potential capacity of more than 720 megawatts and some USD 8bn of investment.
XScale is Equinix’s brand for its hyperscale program. This class of data centres is relatively large and places a strong focus on maintaining the flexibility to increase capacity as demand rises. It is seen as critical to supporting big data-related industries.
“More and more organizations are embracing a digital-first strategy to scale their operations, enhance the experiences of their customers, and unlock the value of technologies like 5G, IoT [internet-of-things], artificial intelligence and machine learning,” Equinix CEO Charles Meyers said in a statement.
The two facilities, to be named SL2x and SL3x, will provide more than 45 MW of power, primarily to cloud service providers They are scoped to use 100% renewable energy. Equinix has operated with 100% renewable energy in Korea since 2020.
As more hyperscale providers expand in Korea, the cloud computing market is expected to flourish. Equinix cites data from IDC Korea, suggesting cloud IT infrastructure in the country will become a USD 1.86bn market by 2025. Equinix first entered Korea in 2019, serving clients such as Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
GIC agreed a similar joint venture with Equinix in Japan in 2020, likewise splitting ownership 80% and 20% in a USD 1bn plan to create three facilities across Tokyo and Osaka. These are also planned to support regional demand for hyperscale cloud infrastructure.
In 2019, GIC partnered with specialist developer GDS Holdings to construct a suite of supercomputing data centres across China under undisclosed financial terms. The scheme allows for GIC to acquire a 90% interest in the assets upon completion of construction.
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