European Data Center Specialist Jumps The Atlantic, Plans $2B In Projects
Yondr Group, a European data center specialist that has developed about 450 megawatts of hyperscale data centers in Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands, is planning a major expansion in the Americas, including the United States, Canada, and Central and South America.
The company has tapped Éanna Murphy, a former executive with Google's data center development team, to spearhead the $2B effort in the Americas from the company's U.S. office in San Francisco.
Yondr didn't specify how much capacity it plans to build in the Americas or a timeline, but it developed 154 MW of data center capacity in Finland in the five years from 2011 to 2016 and 180 MW in the Netherlands from 2015 to 2020. Going forward, Yondr says that all its data centers will be carbon-neutral upon completion.
The company says it is planning to take advantage of what JLL terms an "insatiable demand" for data centers in the United States.
"Absorption reached 619.3 MW in the United States and 201.2 MW in Europe," JLL reported in its Data Center Outlook Year-End 2020 report. "Despite initial slowing and leasing backlogs amid the pandemic, enterprise colocation demand picked up in the second half of the year."
Competition between tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google for cloud dominance is driving the data center boom, with more than half of the world’s 597 hyperscale data centers associated with one of those three, according to Synergy Research Group. As of the beginning of 2021, another 219 hyperscale data centers are in various stages of planning or development.
"The Americas represent a significant opportunity for Yondr Group," company CEO Dave Newitt said in a statement. "Already, the USA's data center capacity alone is more than twice that of Europe. And it's continuing to grow, with a predicted 11GW of capacity in place by 2025."
