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
READ MORE:
Beijing Warns On Disorderly Building Of Data Centres
Chinese Province To Move Data Centres Under The Sea
China Greenlights Data Centre Clusters in North and West
