Equinix will join global asset management firm PGIM Real Estate to develop two new data centers in Sydney devoted to supporting hyper-scale cloud providers. The $776 million joint venture was announced on Tuesday, with the two ‘xScale’ facilities – SY9x and SY10x – to be built in the Western Sydney suburb of Rosehill.
The cloud services, according to Equinix, will have more than 55 megawatts (MW) of electricity and will service a selected set of hyperscale firms, including cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft, and Google. The first facility, SY9x, is set to debut in the first quarter of the next year.
This will be added to Equinix’s current 17 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers across Australia, which will increase to 18 when the company’s PE3 facility in Perth opens later this year. According to the terms of the deal, PGIM Real Estate would possess an 80 percent stake in the joint venture.
According to Equinix President and CEO Charles Meyers, the new partnership with PGIM Real Estate would “allow the world’s top hyperscalers to develop inside the Equinix ecosystem in Australia.” “These businesses recognise that digitalization is a competitive advantage, and they are utilising ‘Platform Equinix’ to connect directly to and operate near to the major cloud firms driving this technology.”
PGIM Real Estate CEO Eric Adler expressed his company’s delight in partnering with Equinix and expressed a desire to expand the partnership into new areas. “This is a very synergistic partnership between two industry leaders with diverse business approaches and services are available,” he added. Equinix Australia announced intentions in July to combine its electricity requirements with the Australian subsidiaries of Nike, H&M, and HSBC Bank to work out a deal on accessibility to renewable energy. Greenpeace listed the firm as the third largest “telco, IT, and IT” emitter in the country.
Equinix has pledged to become “climate-neutral” by 2030.
