M&A, power constraints, GPUs, data centre technology, earnings, cloud, edge nodes
Another busy week saw developments in M&A, more discussion around power constraints, public cloud spending implications for GPU hosting and more global infrastructure expansion.
On the M&A side, Cologix acquired data centres in Iowa as it follows its strategy of picking up connectivity-centric data centre assets in underserved markets, while infrastructure operator Core Scientific received an acquisition offer from CoreWeave that was ultimately turned down. Meanwhile, Eaton made a few technology-oriented investments, acquiring stakes in a thermal monitoring company and a power module provider.
Power continues to be top of mind as increasing constraints are putting pressure on the entire ecosystem. DigitalBridge’s recent earnings call shared a number of interesting data points about how power availability is not keeping in line with its demand profile. Alternatives will have to be pursued and the past week saw AWS get permitting to pave the way for development of a campus powered by nuclear energy, while Iron Mountain Data Centers procured solar power for its London data centre and Keppel DC REIT contracted for solar energy in Dublin, Ireland.
Public cloud platforms continue to expand on a global basis, with edge locations becoming increasingly common. In the past week, OVHcloud launched an edge node in Morocco, Oracle Cloud is also planning cloud regions in Morocco, while Alibaba Cloud is expanding in multiple Southeast Asia locations. Alibaba Cloud is also the latest Chinese hyperscaler to start expanding in Latin America, confirming plans to build a new cloud infrastructure region in Mexico.
The GPU side saw more expansion developments and is set to move outside the US in a meaningful way. CoreWeave confirmed plans to expand its footprint to multiple European locations and NVIDIA disclosed data points about its public cloud spend. NVIDIA has become a massive public cloud customer and we look at the possibility that NVIDIA, at some point, will build its own cloud infrastructure delivery platform and footprint.
Finally, we published our 1Q24 Quarterly Infrastructure Bulletin, with the links below starting with IB: 1Q24. We look at various topics such as self-builds, master-planned data centres, managed public cloud, power constraints, renewables and public cloud investments, while providing a status update and temperature check.
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