M&A, data points, GPUs, land acquisitions, colocation, self-build, expansions
A busy week saw some developments in M&A, more data points from CoreWeave, land acquisitions aimed at both data centre colocation and self-builds, while we also take a closer look at some of the key themes over the past month.
The M&A area continues to be relatively quiet, but an independent data centre operator, Colovore, was acquired by King Street Capital Management. Colovore was an early entrant into the HPC space and one of the first operators to support liquid cooling environments. It is now looking to expand the business just as demand is starting to take off.
The GPU space is at the front and centre of this demand and CoreWeave continues to push forward. We have more data points about its growth and expanding footprint, which is starting to push to international markets.
Meanwhile, hyperscale platforms continue to expand and self-builds are a key component of this strategy. Ohio is at the centre of this activity. Just in the past few weeks, Microsoft acquired land in Heath, Ohio, while Aligned Data Centres broke ground on its site in the Cleveland area site and Cologix opened a new data centre in Columbus targeted at enterprise AI workloads. The building activity has been frenetic enough that AEP has put out new guidelines for hyperscalers procuring power in the state. It is concerned about future transmission capabilities.
There were other land acquisitions of note in APAC, with Digital Hyperspace and CloudHQ active in Johor Bahru and Osaka, while STT GDC entered Vietnam through a new joint venture.
Finally, we look at some of the key themes facing the sector over the last month. Power constraints continue to be a big issue and places like the US Midwest are seen as a solution even as places like Ohio feel the pinch. The pace of hyperscale cloud investments shows no signs of slowing down, and combined with AI, are sparking master-planned data centre park builds. The sector showed another quarter of stabilization as hyperscale showed yet more signs of recovery and even hints at acceleration.
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