Company accelerated its expansion roadmap, entering two new markets, breaking ground on seven campuses and opening 10 facilities across the globe
Vantage Data Centers, leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses, announced the company raised a record $10 billion in incremental debt and equity financing throughout 2023 to support the growing demand from the world’s largest hyperscalers. The capital raised supported record leasing, expansion into two new markets and the groundbreakings of seven campuses across North America, EMEA and APAC.
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“We appreciate the trust, confidence and support of our equity and debt investors, and look forward to continuing these partnerships to create additional value for all Vantage stakeholders.”
Throughout 2023, Vantage leveraged these new investments to serve customers in key markets, supporting the development of digital infrastructure and technology hubs globally. Driving the expansion of the company’s international platform, this influx of capital came as demand for hyperscale cloud services and generative artificial intelligence (AI) soared, with projections expected to reach $535 billion by 2028, according to Structure Research, and $1.3 trillion by 2032, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, respectively.
“In 2023, we entered emerging and high-demand data center markets to meet the needs of our customers as artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies continue to advance,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage Data Centers. “By aligning our strategic roadmap with our customers’ needs and forging partnerships with leading international investors, we continued our rapid growth in 2023, and we will continue to build on this momentum in 2024 and beyond.”
Capital Investments
To support the ongoing development of Vantage’s global data center platform, the company secured more than $10 billion in incremental capital from new and existing investors in 2023 with additional investments planned for 2024.
“It has been an exceptional year for Vantage’s growth with unprecedented demand for data center capacity around the globe, underpinned by the significant funding from our investors. In 2023, we more than tripled last year’s investments, enabling us to ramp up our plans to deliver even more capacity for customers,” said Sharif Metwalli, CFO at Vantage Data Centers. “We appreciate the trust, confidence and support of our equity and debt investors, and look forward to continuing these partnerships to create additional value for all Vantage stakeholders.”
In 2023, Vantage entered the London and Taipei markets, in addition to breaking ground on seven campuses across North America, EMEA and APAC, and opening 10 new data centers globally. Select highlights include:
North America
- Quincy, WA: Vantage delivered its third and final facility on its 89MW WA1 campus in Quincy, Washington. Since entering the market in 2011, Vantage has invested more than $1 billion into the campus and created hundreds of long-term, high-pay jobs. The tax revenue generated by Vantage has contributed to the development of a new modern hospital and a state-of-the-art high school.
- Phoenix, AZ: Vantage celebrated the topping out of Phase II construction on its $1.5 billion, 176MW AZ1 campus in Goodyear, scheduled to be operational in spring 2024. The construction and operation of the facility is expected to create about 3,000 jobs.
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EMEA
- London: Vantage entered the Tier 1 London market with a £500 million investment to support the construction of a 55W campus, followed quickly by the announcement of an additional £250 million investment for the development of a second, 20MW campus.
- Cardiff: The company opened a second, 40MW facility on its Cardiff campus in the summer of 2023.
APAC
- Cyberjaya: Vantage announced its intention to invest an additional $3 billion to support the development of a second, 256MW campus and a fourth, 16MW facility on its KUL1 campus.
- Taipei: Vantage entered the Taipei market, with a 16MW data center.
Leadership Appointments; Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Initiatives
- Leadership Appointments: In support of the company’s growth in Asia Pacific, Vantage appointed Raymond Tong as president, APAC and Joel Cheah as CFO, APAC. In addition, the company named Gregory Thompson Jr. as its inaugural chief information security officer. Vantage also welcomed nearly 300 new team members, bringing the company’s total number of global employees to more than 1,300.
- Second Annual ESG Report: Themed “A Global Vision. Locally Adapted,” Vantage published its second annual ESG report underscoring the company’s environmental stewardship, social responsibility and ethical governance.
- Environmental Impact: Vantage continued to execute on its commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030, including the deployment of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a renewable fuel to replace conventional diesel fuel in generators, at its campuses in Cardiff, Wales, and Santa Clara, California.
Entering 2024, Vantage is poised for strong performance, starting the year with 32 campuses spanning five continents, 13 countries and 19 markets with IT capacity that will surpass 2GW once all campuses are fully developed. Earlier this month, the company announced a $6.4 billion equity investment led by investment vehicles managed by DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG) and Silver Lake to support the development of additional data center campuses across North America and EMEA.
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