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Equinix, GIC form US$525 million joint venture in Korea
Partners to build two hyperscale data centres with over 45MW of power capacity in Seoul
The Asset 27 Jan 2022

New York-listed digital infrastructure provider Equinix has formed a US$525 million limited liability partnership with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, to develop and operate two hyperscale data centres in Seoul, Korea.

The joint venture will bring the global xScale data centre portfolio to more than US$8 billion across 36 facilities, providing more than 720 megawatts of power capacity when completed and fully constructed.

The two facilities under the joint venture, to be named SL2x and SL3x, are expected to provide over 45MW of power capacity to serve the unique core workload deployment needs of hyperscale companies, including the world’s largest cloud service providers, Equinix says.

An artist illustration of the SL2x hyperscale data centre to be developed in Seoul. 

A hyperscale data centre supports the enormous data storage and computing needs of big data-producing companies in an extremely fast, efficient and scalable way. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), a data centre is deemed hyperscale when it exceeds 5,000 servers and 10,000 square feet.

With more hyperscale providers expanding in Korea to support businesses’ digital infrastructure needs, the cloud computing market in the country is expected to flourish. According to IDC Korea, the cloud IT infrastructure market in the country  is expected to reach an average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the next five years, reaching  approximately US$1.86 billion in sales by 2025. The Global Interconnection Index, an annual market study published by Equinix, also estimates that Seoul will have the most interconnection bandwidth from hyperscale providers within Asia-Pacific by 2024.

Equinix president and chief executive officer Charles Meyers comments: “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, internet of things, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Korea and the broader Asia-Pacific market are both enablers and beneficiaries as organizations prioritize digital transformation.“

Under the terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022 pending regulatory approval, GIC will hold an 80% equity interest in the joint venture while Equinix will own the remaining 20%.

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