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Singapore’s GIC to Invest $525m in 2 Korea Data Centres

The two centres are expected to provide more than 45 megawatts of power capacity to serve cloud service providers and other clients


Inside an Equinix data centre in Dallas. The company entered the Korean market in 2019. Photo: Equinix

 

GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, has signed a deal with digital infrastructure company Equinix to build and operate two data centres in Seoul.

The two centres developed by the joint venture are expected to provide more than 45 megawatts (MW) of power capacity to serve cloud service providers and other clients.

“To address demand for cloud and digital infrastructure, we have continued to invest in the [Asia-Pacific] region,” Charles Meyers, Equinix chief executive, said.

According to IDC Korea, the cloud infrastructure market is expected to reach an average annual growth rate of 15% over the next five years, reaching $1.86 billion in sales by 2025.

“More and more organisations 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, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML),” Meyers said.

“Korea and the broader Asia-Pacific market are both enablers and beneficiaries as organisations prioritise digital transformation.”

 

Hyperscale Architecture

The data centres use hyperscale architecture so they can be expanded as increased demand is added to the system.

“With more hyperscale providers expanding in Korea to support businesses’ digital infrastructure needs, the cloud computing market in the country is expected to flourish,” Meyers added.

US-based Equinix entered the Korean market in 2019. Its customers can connect their corporate IT infrastructure to global hyperscale providers, including Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud.

Meyers said Equinix has operated with 100% renewable energy in Korea since 2020. “Equinix is also the first in the data centre industry to commit to reaching global climate-neutrality by 2030.”

Under the terms of Equinix’s joint venture agreement, GIC will own an 80% equity interest in the joint venture, and Equinix will own the remainder.

The joint venture is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, pending regulatory approval and other conditions.

 

  • George Russell

 

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.

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