Equinix

Recent news

• Jun 12, 2026

  Amazon claims its data centers are 7x more water-efficient than the industry average

  Amazon has published new water-efficiency figures for its global data center operations, positioning the company ahead of rivals on WUE and disclosing methods and regional practices.

  • Main announcement: Amazon says it achieved a 52% improvement in water efficiency over the last 5 years, reporting a WUE of 0.12 L/kWh in 2025 (compared with an industry average of 0.84 L/kWh), claims its data centers are 7x more water-efficient than the industry average, and reports returning 3 US gallons to communities for every 4 gallons used, stating it is 75% of the way to a water-positive 2030 goal. It attributes gains to free air cooling (~90% of the time), evaporative cooling, raised operating temperature thresholds (85° F), and use of reclaimed water across 130 facilities (26 using reclaimed water exclusively).
  • Context and background: The figures were published amid increased disclosure pressure and two days after Seattle imposed a one-year freeze on new large data centers citing water concerns; the article references competitor WUE figures (Microsoft 0.27 L/kWh in 2025, Google ~1.15 L/kWh, Meta ~0.20 L/kWh) and highlights industry discussion on metrics (WUE, PUE ~1.15 for Amazon), regional disclosure commitments, and emerging dynamics due to AI infrastructure and location-specific water constraints.
• Jun 10, 2026

  Data Center Architects Reimagine Facilities as Urban Assets

  Data center operators and developers are treating architecture as a strategic asset to integrate facilities into communities.

  • Main action: Operators and developers (notably JLL, Gensler, and llLab) are prioritizing architectural integration, façade refinement, landscaping, and context-sensitive site planning to win community support; example projects include Wonder Valley Data Center Park (~8,000 acres, Alberta, Canada) and Spark 761 (Beijing), and Equinix’s PA10 in Saint-Denis features a green roof/rooftop greenhouse.
  • Background/details: The trend is driven by branding and talent attraction, early architect involvement (llLab on Spark 761), technical coordination for exposed systems (inspired by Lloyd’s and Pompidou precedents), and infrastructure shifts—notably AI inference workloads favoring urban proximity and moves from diesel generators toward battery storage—that make urban siting more viable.
• Jun 9, 2026

  Hydrogen’s Hurdles, Fuel Cells’ Rise in Data Center Power

  DataCenterKnowledge publishes a final installment reviewing less-mature or emerging alternatives to diesel generators for data center backup power, focusing on hydrogen backup, fuel cells, and renewable fuels.

  • Main coverage: The article assesses hydrogen engines and fuel cells and renewable diesel as diesel alternatives, noting concrete deployments and pilots: NorthC Datacenters ordered six Jenbacher hydrogen engines in the Netherlands (dual-gas for short hydrogen outages), Microsoft piloted a 3 MW hydrogen fuel cell in Latham, NY, and Bloom Energy signed a $5 billion strategic partnership with Brookfield to accelerate fuel cell capacity. It highlights the Dutch ~300 km national hydrogen network repurposed from natural gas pipelines and Microsoft’s prior 2030 diesel elimination pledge as context.
  • Background & policy details: The piece notes regulatory movement with the US EPA removing proposed hydrogen co-firing mandates from its NSPS (earlier draft had ramped to 96% by 2038), cites cost and infrastructure constraints for hydrogen (production, transport, storage, permitting), and points out that fuel cells running on natural gas/biogas are identified as the most likely near-term scalable solution for behind-the-meter AI power needs.
• Jun 5, 2026

  Colocation vs. Public Cloud: Cost, Performance, and How to Choose

  This guide clarifies the differences between colocation and public cloud and provides decision guidance for organizations choosing infrastructure models.

  • Explains trade-offs between colocation (renting space in third-party data centers such as Digital Realty and Equinix) and public cloud (IaaS operated by cloud providers); covers scalability, performance, cost, security, locational flexibility, and integration.
  • Details specific operational considerations: colocation requires leasing rack space and owning/maintaining hardware (scaling can take weeks–months), and involves interconnection/cross-connect fees and remote-hands costs; public cloud enables fast elasticity (servers provisioned in minutes), pay-as-you-go pricing, reserved/committed discounts, managed services (e.g., Kubernetes, AI/ML stacks), and operates under a shared responsibility security model.
• Jun 3, 2026

  New Data Center Developments: June 2026

  Data Center Knowledge has published a monthly roundup of global data center developments.

  • Highlights include: CloudBurst breaking ground on a 1.2 GW flagship campus in Central Texas; Nvidia partnering with IREN to deploy up to 5 GW of global AI infrastructure with Texas’ Sweetwater as a flagship site; Prime Data Centers breaking ground on SMF02 (150,000 sq.ft, 18 MW IT load) in Sacramento; Applied Digital planning Delta Forge 1 — $3.6 billion, 300-acre AI campus in Boyce, Louisiana; Hive Digital/Buzz HPC planning an ~320 MW AI facility in the Greater Toronto Area.
  • Additional concrete items and timelines: SoftBank plans up to €75 billion to develop 5 GW in France (targeting 3.1 GW by 2031); Ardian & Verne’s €5 billion digital campus (500 MW, with 200+ MW by 2030); TotalEnergies’ €100 million Pangea 5 supercomputer investment; Arcem’s Joroinen site delivering 60 MW by 2027 and 100 MW by 2029; CDC Data Centres’ 555 MW contract to be delivered with operations commencing in FY28 and FY29. All items are factual summaries from the article.
• Jun 1, 2026

  Can Data Centers Ditch Concrete – or Just Use Less of It?

  Equinix and other operators are adopting low-carbon materials and retrofit strategies while acknowledging that mission-critical structural elements will continue to rely on conventional concrete.

  • Main action: Operators including Equinix, DataBank, and WhiteFiber are implementing low-carbon concrete mixes, mass timber for non-critical buildings (Equinix administrative building in Frankfurt; Meta admin building in Aiken County, S.C.), and retrofits (WhiteFiber NC-1 in Madison, N.C.) to reduce embodied carbon while meeting accelerated AI-driven timelines.
  • Background/details: The article documents compute densities of 50–150 kW per rack, the shift to liquid cooling increasing structural demands, the timing constraint (construction schedules compressed from years to months), and Equinix’s three-step framework: Avoid, Reduce, Scale; it also notes emerging carbon capture in cement works in several European markets as a decarbonization pathway.
• May 28, 2026 · TechNode Global

  Singapore data center sector draws strong mix of local, regional and US operators – Credit Sights

  Credit Sights published a note on APAC data centre financing and market dynamics.

  • Main announcement: Credit Sights said APAC data centre operators are anchored by domestic (Keppel DC, ST Telemedia GDC), regional (NTT, AirTrunk, PDG) and international (Equinix, Digital Realty, Vantage) players, with funding coming from bank loans/project finance, REITs, green/ sustainability-linked bonds, and Islamic finance; it highlighted that demand is underpinned by western hyperscalers and regional fintech and enterprises.
  • Background and deal details: The note documents multiple specific financings and pipelines including Equinix S$1.15 billion ($900 million) SGD green bonds in 2025 (S$650m [$508m] in Aug; S$500m [$391m] in Mar); STT GDC S$500 million ($391 million) subordinated perpetual bond (NC2030) in 2024; AirTrunk A$1.8bn ($1.28bn) debt package for JHB1 with 23 banks and an ~$3 billion enterprise valuation for JHB1, an expected close “this year” and a potential Singapore REIT raising up to $1.5bn; AirTrunk seeking $2.3bn syndicated loan for JHB2; and DayOne’s MYR 15 billion (about $3.6 billion) financing in Jun 2025 (comprised of MYR 7.5 billion [$5.34bn] Islamic tranche and a $1.7bn offshore term loan) plus later moves to seek up to $7bn in amended loans, consider Series C > $4bn and a $1bn revolving facility ahead of a dual IPO at a $20bn valuation.
• May 20, 2026

  Distributed Data Centers Could Help With Public Trust

  A panel in Orlando (May 20, 2026) examined distributed data center architecture as a solution to AI power demand and rising local opposition.

  • Main announcement: The panel recommended distributed data centers — smaller facilities of 5 to 20 megawatts located within a 100-mile radius of users and connected by fiber — to reduce grid strain and meet inference latency needs (under 10 milliseconds). Event details:
    • Date: May 20, 2026
    • Location: Orlando
    • Agenda/subject: How distributed, fiber-connected data center architecture can resolve power constraints and community opposition to large centralized AI data centers.
  • Background and details: Panelists (Sachin Gupta of Centranet, Joshua Turiano of Blue Stream Fiber, and Sarah Davis of Fidium) cited that global AI power demand is projected to double by 2030, 70% of Americans oppose AI data centers near them (Gallup/Pew polling), and supply constraints such as the BEAD program are straining availability of fiber optic glass; the article also includes a $490/year paid subscription offer for full Fiber Connect coverage.
• May 20, 2026

  Selector targets the network visibility gap in multi-cloud infrastructure

  Selector has updated its NetOps platform to provide a single correlated view across branches, colocation facilities, on-premises data centers, and public cloud infrastructure.

  • Platform update & capabilities: Selector announced an update that extends its existing NetOps platform (not a separate product) to normalize and correlate telemetry across branches, colocation facilities, on-prem data centers, and public cloud via a normalization layer called the data hypervisor; ingestion sources include VPC flow logs, hyperscaler event streams, virtual firewalls/load balancers, SNMP, and streaming telemetry, and cloud constructs covered include AWS transit gateways, Direct Connect gateways, and Google Cloud Routers.
  • Background, deployment details & timeline: The company said early deployments surfaced previously unseen application flows; Selector has built foundational AI/ML models and layered generative AI on top, with a full generative AI release planned for the fall; CEO Kannan Kothandaraman provided quoted rationale and product context in the article.
• May 19, 2026

  Big Fiber’s $250M Signals an AI Dark-Fiber Land Rush

  Big Fiber has secured $250 million in financing from Stonepeak and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) to expand its dark fiber footprint and network capacity.

  • Main action:$250 million financing from Stonepeak and CDPQ to support greenfield construction and overbuilds of exhausted legacy telecommunications corridors, targeting AI-driven demand in regions including the San Francisco Bay Area, Hillsboro, and Atlanta; funds will expand dark fiber footprint and network capacity for hyperscalers and large-scale data center operators.
  • Context and details: Analysts and company executives cite extreme route diversity (tri-/quad-versity), rising inference workload demand for dense metro connectivity, and power-rich regions (West Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia) as drivers; the article notes optical supply chain tightening (CRU Group) and provides traffic multipliers (AI “scale-up” and “scale-out” bandwidth impacts) but does not specify implementation timelines.
• May 12, 2026 · TechNode Global

  Equinix to build another data center in Malaysia with $190M

  Equinix has announced a new data center, KL2, to expand its Malaysia footprint with a stated investment commitment.

  • Equinix announced KL2, a new data center in Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur, representing a total investment of over $190 million; KL2 will deliver more than 2,200 cabinets when fully built out and is located less than one kilometer from Equinix’s existing KL1 site.
  • Background and implementation details: KL2 is Equinix’s fourth data center in Malaysia (complementing KL1, JH1 and planned JH2), will interconnect via Equinix Fabric, target 100% renewable energy coverage (aligned with Equinix’s 2030 goal and APDCA commitments), include support for advanced liquid cooling for AI/HPC workloads, and has adjacent land secured for future expansion; the announcement is a company statement (not a third-party analysis).
• May 8, 2026

  Supermicro’s New AI Campus Embodies the Industrialization of AI Infrastructure

  Supermicro announced the opening of its largest U.S. Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) campus near its San Jose headquarters on April 27, 2026.

  • Main announcement: The new DCBBS campus spans ~32.8 acres and more than 714,000 square feet, becomes Supermicro’s fourth Bay Area location, expands the company’s regional footprint to nearly 4 million square feet, and will support advanced system design, domestic manufacturing, testing, service, and global distribution for Supermicro’s AI infrastructure portfolio. The facility includes 10 MW of on‑campus power capacity and is positioned as a rack‑scale, liquid‑cooled AI integration and validation hub.
  • Background and related details: Supermicro frames this as a move from server manufacturing to rack-scale DCBBS integration, part of a global footprint spanning Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Netherlands; the company reported fiscal 2025 net sales of $22 billion (up from $15 billion the prior year), projected fiscal 2026 revenue of at least $33 billion, and in early May projected quarterly revenue of $11–$12.5 billion. On May 6, Supermicro signed a non-binding MOU with NANO Nuclear to explore pairing microreactor generation (KRONOS platform) with Supermicro’s liquid‑cooled AI systems (no commercial deployment timeline announced).
• Apr 29, 2026

  Elea Founder: Brazil Expansion to Accelerate After I Squared Deal

  I Squared Capital has announced it acquired a majority stake in Elea Data Centers (announcement dated April 28).

  • Main action: I Squared Capital acquired a majority stake in Elea Data Centers for an undisclosed sum to accelerate Elea’s expansion and development of large-scale AI infrastructure; Elea currently operates nine data center campuses, has more than 300 MW of powered land, more than 1 GW in development, and is developing Rio AI City with up to 3.2 GW of renewable energy capacity.
  • Background & implementation details: Elea was founded in 2018 by Piemonte Holding, operates entirely on renewable energy, and will prioritize growth across Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília) with potential regional expansion across Latin America; I Squared Capital has invested more than $3 billion in Latin America since 2015 and has prior investments in nLighten, Conrad Energy, and BDx. The acquisition was announced April 28 and is described as supporting Elea’s planned expansion program and acceleration of high-density AI infrastructure development.
• Apr 28, 2026

  California Utilities Have a Solution to Soaring Energy Prices: More Data Centers

  PG&E is advancing a policy and commercial push to attract large data center loads as a means to lower electric rates for California ratepayers.

  • Main announcement/action: PG&E has celebrated the delivery of its first large data-center customer in San Jose and is actively courting hyperscalers; the utility announced a rate decrease in March 2026 and asserts that each 1 GW of data center load could reduce electric rates by 1–2%, while forecasting up to 12.6 GW of potential data-center load from current applications (enough to power 8.4 million homes). CPUC also approved Electric Rule No. 30 (July 2025) requiring applicants to pay transmission upgrade costs upfront to protect ratepayers.
  • Background and other details: Regulatory and research sources (Brattle Group and LBNL) show California’s retail electricity prices rose markedly 2019–2024 (California at 30.29 cents/kWh); Cal Advocates warns transmission upgrades could run in the billions and recommends cost-responsibility rules. State-level bills (Sen. Scott Padilla, March) would streamline environmental review (ELDP incentives) and impose tariffs to ensure data centers offset costs; a March presidential Rate Payer Protection Pledge was signed by major tech firms (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, xAI).