Data Centres & Networks

Data centre research and development is a key theme of recent announcements from the Brazilian government and cloud and carrier-neutral data centre platform Digital Realty, although the focus of each initiative is slightly different.

Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel said on Wednesday its board of directors has endorsed two internal proposals to allocate BRL1.7 billion (almost US$309 million) of leftover funds from its 5G auction in 2021 to two new projects: a sovereign AI data centre and TV 3.0 converter subsidies.

Google has announced plans to invest US$15 billion in Malaysia across the next two years.

Crisil Ratings, an Indian a full-service rating agency, says India’s data centre industry is entering what it calls an investment ‘supercycle’. Installed capacity, it notes, is expected to increase five-fold to about 7.5 gigawatts (GW) by March 2030.

DE-CIX and Ooredoo Oman announced on Tuesday they have signed an agreement to launch Gulf Gateway-IX, a new internet exchange (IX) that will interconnect the country’s dual subsea corridors in Muscat and Salalah.

NTT Data announced on Tuesday it has opened a new AI-ready data centre, Jakarta 2 Annex Data Centre (JKT2A), alongside the launch of its next-gen all-photonics network (APN) technology to interconnect its other data centres in Indonesia.

International network services provider RETN said on Wednesday it has expanded its presence in Bulgaria via a deal with connectivity and telecom solution provider Neterra to install a new PoP in its Sofia Data Center (SDC) campus.

DE-CIX and Thai telecoms service provider International Gateway Co (IGC) announced on Wednesday they have established a joint venture to create a new internet exchange (IX) in Bangkok to serve as a regional gateway to Southeast Asia.

Kazakh telco Transtelecom (TTC) and payments firm CNP Processing announced a partnership on Thursday that will enable local enterprises to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies for payment services, with local data storage and processing.

Data centre operator STT GDC announced on Wednesday that India-based AI cloud company Neysa will use its STT Noida 2 facility to host a new deployment of GPU infrastructure and its Velocis AI cloud platform.

SoleCrypt, a provider of sustainable digital infrastructure, has announced plans for the SoleCrypt AI Campus in Bizerte, Tunisia, a 40 MW campus, beginning with a 7 MW first phase designed around the Nvidia HGX Rubin NVL8 platform.

ZTE has launched its new-generation integrated IT POD solution, ZXEDC M8000 Intelligent Computing Micro-Module, at Data Center World Asia.

Internet exchange (IX) operator DE-CIX says it has completed a resilient three-route gateway connecting the Middle East and Southeast Europe with Central Europe.

Singapore-based AI cloud firm Aolani said on Monday it has signed a Letters of Intent (LOI) to take up 500 MW of AI data centre capacity in Malaysia starting in the second half of 2027 across multiple sites.

Large-scale data centre growth in India appears to be accelerating, with recently announced deals or plans including big names such as CtrlS Datacenters, Submer, BSNL and Google, but some public discomfort has been expressed about the rollout in Andhra Pradesh.

International data centre infrastructure firm FiveNines Group says that it is partnering with AI infrastructure specialist Nexus Core Systems to oversee development of a planned 20MW AI data centre in Morocco.

Princeton Digital Group (PDG), a pan-APAC developer and operator of hyperscale data centres, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its enterprise data centre business in Indonesia to PT SMPlus Digital Investama (together with its affiliates).

Nokia has announced that Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), Brazil's national research and education network (NREN), has selected Nokia and technology company Q13 to modernise rede Ipê, which it describes as critical infrastructure for Brazil’s research and education communities.

Vertiv announced on Monday it has signed an MoU with US-based Cybastion to establish a framework to collaborate on digital infrastructure projects in Northwest Africa.

There’s a new arrival in the African data centre market as Continent 8 Technologies, a provider of managed technology solutions designed for the global iGaming and online sports betting industry, announces its expansion into Africa with the launch of a new data centre in South Africa.

APTelecom said on Thursday it is joining real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to conduct a feasibility study for a proposed new hyperscale data centre campus in Vietnam.

Malaysian multidisciplinary real estate firm Quill Group of Companies and China Mobile International have signed an MoU to explore cooperation opportunities in green data centres and AI digital infrastructure in Malaysia.

Ciena said on Monday it’s working with Indian data centre company CtrlS to upgrade five metro networks connecting nine of its data centres to support growing bandwidth requirements driven by AI and cloud services.

State-owned Uzbektelecom (a.k.a. Uztelecom) commissioned two new data centres in Bukhara and Kokand on Tuesday to boost cloud services, AI resources and GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offerings in Uzbekistan.

Submer, a full-stack AI and HPC infrastructure provider, and technology company Intel have announced a collaboration covering artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, high-performance computing (HPC) and next-generation data centre solutions across the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed that it’s been unable to restore access to its data centres in Bahrain and one of its three data centres in the UAE after they were damaged by Iranian drone strikes earlier this year.

Digital Realty announced on Monday it has formed a strategic joint venture with Turkish investment company Rönesans Infrastructure to develop and operate next-generation data centres across Turkey.

South Africa-based Digital Parks Africa (DPA) says it’s expanding into West Africa with plans to develop a new carrier-neutral data centre in Nigeria in association with the Master Power Technologies Group.

Indonesia-based AI platform Zankore announced on Wednesday it has secured a senior term loan facility of up to US$3.1 billion to finance its planned deployment of Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure across Southeast Asia.

UAE-based data centre operator DAMAC Digital and Vodafone Türkiye have inaugurated the first phase of a new data centre in Izmir with an initial IT load capacity of 4MW and an investment of US$100 million.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has opened a consultation on a proposed standalone licence for colocation data centres, in a move aimed at providing greater regulatory clarity for the sector and supporting investment in digital infrastructure.

Vodafone Business, Cassava Technologies and Elsewedy Electric signed an agreement on Tuesday to establish Africa Data Centers Egypt, a data centre project that will include Egypt's first sovereign AI data centre powered by Nvidia GPUs.