Data Centres & Networks

Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) says it has approved 66.2 billion baht (US$1.96 billion) worth of investments for new data centre projects in Chonburi Province backed by Google and China’s GDS.

Nokia has announced that Vietnam’s largest service provider, Viettel, will use its optical transport solution to cost-effectively address growing demand for 5G and data centre interconnect (DCI), consumer data consumption, and cross-border connectivity.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Philippines said on Thursday that the first phase of operations for its upcoming STT Fairview 1 hyperscale data centre is on track to be ready for service by the second quarter of 2025.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix announced on Tuesday it will invest around US$500 million in phases over the next ten years to cash in on Thailand's bustling data centre scene, starting with two new IBX data centres in Bangkok.

Odata, a Brazilian provider of data centre services for Latin America that is controlled by US group Aligned Data Centres, is reportedly investing US$1.3 billion to develop two more data centres in Colombia.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix announced it has opened its first International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in South Africa, and is already onboarding new customers and partners.

Indian state-owned telco BSNL is reportedly planning to lease out its land assets to data centre operators and renewable energy firms as part of a broader strategy to turn around its flagging telecoms business.

V.tal, a global end-to-end digital infrastructure solutions company operating in the Americas and owner of the largest neutral fibre optic network in Brazil, has unveiled the new brand for its data centre business unit, Tecto Data Centres.

Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications (HGC) says it has officially launched data centre interconnect (DCI) clusters in key data hubs across Asia to position itself as a major regional provider of in-country and inter-country data centre connectivity.

Colt Technology Services says it has formed a partnership with Telecom Egypt to launch two new high-speed internet transit nodes in Cairo and Alexandria that will enable both firms to offer digital services to customers across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

PLDT Group’s data centre arm Vitro, a subsidiary of ePLDT, and Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications said on Monday they have formed a strategic partnership to improve data centre connectivity in the Philippines.

UAE-based Edgnex Data Centres by DAMAC says it has formed a joint venture with Thai ISP Proen Corp to invest over THB32 billion baht (US$962 million) in several data centre development projects in Thailand.

Technology innovation giant Nokia and Furukawa Electric LatAm, a communications infrastructure solutions manufacturer, have announced plans to expanded their partnership, which was established in 2022, to immediately bring high-performance solutions in data centre automation to Brazil.

This week saw a significant agreement in the Middle Eastern data centre market as INTRO Technology announced the signing of a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Oman Data Park, the largest data centre and cloud service provide in Oman, to establish what us to be known as the Kemet data centre in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Internet exchange operator DE-CIX has struck a deal to enter the South American market via Brazil’s Elea Data Centers, which will host its first two IX PoPs in Brazil.

In what may seem an unusual form of diversification, Pakistan’s Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) has said it plans to invest in the establishment of data centres, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and related technology ventures.

Data centre operator Raxio Group says it has inaugurated Raxio Côte d’Ivoire (CIV1), described as a state-of-the-art data centre, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

Qatar-based Ooredoo Group announced on Tuesday it has signed a QAR 2 billion (US$549.4 million) financing deal to help fund its plan to accelerate its data centre business and establish itself as an AI infrastructure heavyweight in the MENA region.

Data centre provider Princeton Digital Group (PDG), a major player in the Asian market, says it has acquired powered land for 500MW capacity expansion in key markets across Asia.

African cloud services provider ST Digital has announced its expansion into the Democratic Republic of Congo through a partnership with the Open Access Data Centres (OADC) Texaf – Kinshasa data centre, the Democratic Republic of Congo's first live open-access, carrier-neutral and Uptime Institute Tier-III certified data centre.

Aramco Digital Company and Groq, a major name in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) inference, have announced a partnership to establish the world's largest inferencing data centre in Saudi Arabia. But it's far from the only recent AI news from the digital and technology subsidiary of Aramco, the giant global integrated energy and chemicals company.

The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and Scala Data Centers, a leading Latin American platform of sustainable data centres in the hyperscale market, have signed a letter of intent to enable the construction of what they call the largest and most innovative digital infrastructure project in South America.

Orange Business announced the completion of a connectivity project with healthcare company Grifols Egypt to improve the supply and delivery of medicine.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) announced on Friday that it will invest US$3.2 billion to expand its data centre capacity in India by 550MW, nearly tripling its IT load capacity to meet the demands of India’s digital economy over the next five to six years.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant has been a highly influential metric in the technology sector for over ten years. As an ostensibly objective analysis of market competitors, the majority of businesses factor it into their decision-making, so its impact on the sector’s competitive landscape is evident.

Philippine data centre developer and operator A-FLOW – the JV partnership between PAG-owned FLOW Digital Infrastructure and AyalaLand Logistics (ALLHC) – announced on Thursday that it has topped off its first data center in Biñan, Laguna.

Google announced on Thursday it will invest US$850 million in its long-planned Terros data centre in Canelones, Uruguay, a month after convincing the government that the facility won’t exacerbate the country’s water shortage due to drought.

Reliance Jio’s parent company, Reliance Industries Limited, is reportedly planning to build AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar as part of the company’s overall strategy of “democratising” access to AI infrastructure.

Hong Kong-based global ICT service provider and network operator HGC Global Communications (HGC) announced on Wednesday that it has launched a data centre interconnect (DCI) solution in Bangkok.

BDx Indonesia has announced the launch of the first phase of its interconnected internet exchange (IX) ecosystem in Indonesia.

A second big data centre story this month has come from the Democratic Republic of Congo as it inaugurates a US$30 million data centre from Raxio Group, said to be Africa’s leading carrier-neutral Tier III data centre operator.