Equinix

Acquisitions and expansion

In 2002, Equinix merged with I-STT, the Internet infrastructure service subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Telemedia, and Pihana Pacific.[15] This established the company's presence in China, Singapore, Australia and Japan.[16] In 2007, the firm entered the European market by acquiring data center operator IXEurope and its facilities. In 2010, Equinix opened its 50th data center in London.[17] Over the next seven years, the company nearly tripled its data center portfolio. The company attributed this growth to increased demand, which was caused by the emergence of cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and big data.[18][19][20]

In 2010, the company purchased Switch and Data Facilities Company, Inc., a U.S. Internet exchange and colocation services provider.[21] The company extended its operations to the Middle East and in Southeast Asia in 2012.[9][22] Also in 2012, it acquired Hong Kong-based data center provider Asia-Tone.[23] In 2014, Equinix increased its Latin American presence when it acquired ALOG Datacenters of Brazil S.A., the country's leading provider of carrier-neutral data centers.[8]

In 2015, Equinix converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT) to gain tax advantages and add shareholder value.[24] That same year, it acquired the professional services company Nimbo.[25]

In May 2015, Equinix said it would purchase the British company TelecityGroup, the largest acquisition in the company's history.[26] The offer was cleared by the European Commission in November[27] after Equinix agreed to sell eight of its data centers around Europe to Digital Realty,[28][29] while retaining its Telecity Harbour Exchange data center in London Docklands,[30] an acquisition Equinix completed in a transaction valued at approximately $3.8 billion.[31] The addition of these data centers more than doubled Equinix's capacity in Europe.[32] In December 2015, the company purchased Japanese provider Bit-Isle,[31] adding six data centers in Japan.[33]

In 2016, Equinix opened new data centers in Dallas, Sydney, and Tokyo[34] and announced a deal to acquire 29 data centers in 15 markets from Verizon.[35]

In 2017, the firm opened a new data center in São Paulo.[36] In that same year, Equinix acquired Itconic, which expanded its data center footprint into Spain and Portugal.[37][38]

In 2018, Equinix purchased the Dallas Infomart building, where it had already been operating four data centers.[39] It also acquired Australian data center provider Metronode and its 10 data centers.[40] The company opened its first data center in South Korea the next year.[41]

In 2020, Equinix finalized the purchase of Packet, a startup[42] that provided bare-metal servers as a cloud service.[43] The company expanded into India in August 2020, with the acquisition of GPX India, including a campus in Mumbai with two data centers.[44][45] In October 2020, Equinix completed the acquisition of 13 Bell Canada data centers.[46][47] The company also invested heavily in hyperscale xScale data centers.[48][49]

On December 7, 2021, Equinix announced its acquisition of Main One, a West African data center and connectivity solutions provider, for $320 million.[50]

In March 2022, Equinix expanded into Chile and Peru with $758 million acquisition of four data centers from Entel.[51][52]

In November 2022, Equinix announced its market entry into Malaysia with plans to build a new International Business Exchange (IBX) data center located in Iskandar Puteri, Johor Bahru, Johore called JH1. With an initial investment of approximately $40 million, JH1 launched operations in Q1 2024, providing 500 cabinets and 1,960 square meters of colocation space.[53]

In 2024, the company announced a $390 million expansion plan to build more data centers in Africa over the ensuing five years.[54] Later that year, it partnered with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore's GIC to develop new data centers, expecting to meet demand resulting from a boom in artificial intelligence.[55] The company also announced their expansion to Thailand that year, with two data centers in Bangkok expected to open in 2027.[56]

Environmental impact

In 2015, Equinix announced a long-term commitment to power its data centers with clean, renewable energy.[57] The announcement followed criticism in 2014 from the environmental group Greenpeace, which said in a report on internet companies’ environmental practices that Equinix was not doing enough to address renewable energy use or carbon emissions.[58] In response, the company signed agreements with wind farms in Texas and Oklahoma to purchase renewable energy to offset electricity use at its North American data centers.[59]

In September 2020, Equinix issued $1.35 billion in green bonds to help fund environmental projects.[60] At the same time, the company introduced a Green Finance Framework to describe how it reports on and tracks projects funded through green debt.[61][62]

In January 2021, Equinix joined the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, committing to make their data centers climate neutral by 2030.[63]

In 2024, the company expanded a heat export program that redirects excess heat from its data centers to nearby buildings. That year, Equinix vice president Christopher Wellise said that rising energy use from artificial intelligence was increasing strain on electrical grids and that AI development needed to be considered with sustainability in mind.[64]

Equinix’s environmental efforts have been recognized by external organizations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named the company a Green Power Partner in 2019 and 2020.[65][66][67][68]

Data center (IBX) locations

• Americas: United States, Brazil,[75] Canada, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru
• Asia-Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan,[76] South Korea, Singapore, India, Malaysia.
• Europe and Middle East: Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany,[77] Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,[78] Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Oman,[79] United Kingdom.[14]
• Africa: Nigeria,[80][81] South Africa.[82]