REDWOOD CITY, Calif.,
Dec. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world's digital infrastructure
company™, today announced plans to enter the South African market
with a US$160 million data center
investment in Johannesburg that
augments its current footprint on the African continent in
Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. The new data center
is expected to open mid-2024.
With its South Africa
expansion, Equinix is entering one of the largest and most
digitally developed nations on the African continent.1
Already a strategically important connectivity hub for digital
networks, South Africa boasts a
significant network of submarine communications cables. These
strategic links between countries and continents are established at
several points across the country's 2,850 kilometres of
coastline.
"We entered the African continent earlier this year with the
acquisition of MainOne, the leading West African data center
and connectivity solutions provider with presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire," said Eugene Bergen, President, EMEA, Equinix. "This
investment will give both South African businesses the opportunity
to expand internationally and global businesses to expand into
South Africa. Both will be able to
accelerate their growth by rapidly scaling their infrastructure,
easily adopting hybrid multicloud architectures and interconnecting
with business partners through the Platform Equinix ecosystem
of more than 10,000 customers."
At Equinix, we seek to be good stewards of the environment and
of the resources we consume. We design, build and operate
sustainable data centers planned holistically to reduce our
consumption of all resources and maximize efficiency. We were the
first company in the data center industry to set a science-based
emission reduction target and commit to become climate neutral
globally by 2030, aligned to the Paris Accord 1.5-degree scenario.
We have a long-term goal of sourcing 100% clean and renewable
energy for our global platform. Equinix's renewable energy coverage
in 2021 was 95% and has been over 90% since 2018.
Equinix is seeking out sustainable and reliable sources of
energy for this new data center as is customary when we enter a new
market. While the exploration for sustainable and reliable sources
of energy continues, this new facility is expected to feature many
unique sustainable attributes including hyper-efficient cooling
with outside air economization using minimal water, allowing us to
limit our carbon footprint and maintain energy efficient operations
with industry leading PUEs.
The announcement is the latest in a series of strategic and
significant market entries for the world's digital infrastructure
company. Following the acquisition of MainOne in April 2022, Equinix has announced two expansions
into ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) following
the recently announced plans to expand into Indonesia and Malaysia. Prior to this,
the company also announced growth in the South American
market with its acquisition of five Entel data centers to
accelerate digital transformation opportunities for local
businesses and multinational companies in Peru and Chile. The company has also
continued to invest in organic expansion with 46 major builds
underway in 31 markets.
Highlights / Key Facts
- Equinix plans to expand into South
Africa with a US$160 million
data center investment in Johannesburg, expected to open mid-2024.
- The new 4.0 MW data center, JN1, will provide 690+ cabinets and
more than 20,000 gross square feet of colocation space.
- Two additional phases of development are planned. The fully
completed 20.0 MW premium retail campus will provide 3,450+
cabinets and more than 100,000 gross square feet of colocation
space.
- In 2022, Equinix announced its acquisition of MainOne, its
first step into Africa.
- The current Platform Equinix® footprint spans six continents,
32 countries, 70+ markets, and over 245 International Business
Exchange™ (IBX®) and xScale® data centers, providing digital
infrastructure for more than 10,000 of the world's leading
businesses, including more than 50% of Fortune 500 companies.
- Each year, Equinix has continued to expand its overall
portfolio as the world's digital infrastructure company with
ongoing strategic growth investments—over US$2.7 billion in capital expenditures in 2021
alone.
- Arizton reports that South
Africa is the top data center market in Africa and will witness investments of
US$3,228.3 million by 2027, growing
at a CAGR of 11.15% during 2022–2027.
- As indicated in the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) 2023,
organizations are connecting to three times as many business
ecosystem partners and metros, consuming more than twice the amount
of interconnection bandwidth on average in the past five quarters
than in the previous five years. Organizations need access to
ecosystems comprising network companies, cloud and system
integrator companies, and enterprise customers who can take
advantage of a full platform service across a global
footprint.
- According to Statista.com as of 2022, the share of the total
population of South Africa using
the internet was nearly 80%. This share is expected to grow up to
an estimated 90% by 2027, meaning it has some of the highest
penetration of mobile and internet users in Africa. This predicted rise would represent an
increase of 28% compared to 2018 when the share of the population
accessing the internet in the country was only 62%.
Supporting Resources
- Equinix Enters Africa, Closing the US$320 Million Acquisition of MainOne [press
release]
- Equinix Enters Malaysia with $40M
Data Center Investment [press release]
- Equinix Expands to Indonesia
with $74M Data Center Investment
[press release]
- Equinix to Expand into Chile
and Peru with US$705 Million Acquisition of 4 Entel Data
Centers [press release]
- Equinix Expands to India with
Acquisition of GPX India [press release]
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital
infrastructure company. Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted
platform to bring together and interconnect foundational
infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to
access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale
with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver
world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting
their sustainability goals.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ
materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking
statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but
are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results
related to the COVID-19 pandemic; the current inflationary
environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; increased
costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global
energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and
constructing IBX and xScale® data
centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products
and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the
integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into
Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers
in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete
any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time;
competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to
generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay
new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business
from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT and
other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and
upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available
upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation
to update the forward-looking information contained in this press
release.
1 Source: South Africa Data Center Market Investment
Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2022–2027/Arizton Advisory and
Intelligence/November 2022
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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.