Chinese data centre firm GDS raises US$1 billion for overseas infrastructure expansion

That funding will help capitalise the development of up to 1 gigawatt of total data centre capacity outside China, according to GDS

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More enterprises are using data centres to host or manage high-performance computing systems for their artificial intelligence projects. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00pm, 30 Oct 2024

GDS Holdings, a major developer and operator of high-performance data centres in China and Southeast Asia, has raised US$1 billion from institutional private-equity investors, who subscribed to newly issued Series B convertible preferred shares of the firm’s international affiliate.

That financing via Series B investment in the affiliate known as GDS International, which serves as holding company for Shanghai-based GDS’ data-centre assets and operations outside mainland China, was mostly led by US investors including technology-focused venture-capital firm Coatue Management and hedge fund The Baupost Group, according to a GDS statement released on Tuesday.

Together with GDS International’s existing equity, the Series B funding will be sufficient to capitalise the development of up to 1 gigawatt of total data centre capacity, which is more than twice the current size of the company’s facilities in service and under construction outside the mainland, according to the statement.

“Within a short period of time, we have created new markets in and around [the] Singapore-Johor-Batam [markets], which are attracting both regional and global hyperscale [cloud-computing service] demand,” GDS founder, chairman and chief executive William Huang Wei said on Tuesday. “We see tremendous opportunities for growth in these markets, as well as in other new markets which we are currently evaluating.”

GDS Holdings founder, chairman and chief executive William Huang Wei. Photo: SCMP

Data centres are secure, temperature-controlled facilities that house large-capacity servers and data-storage systems, with multiple power sources and high-bandwidth internet connections.

Cloud computing technology enables enterprises to manage or distribute over the internet a range of software and other digital resources as an on-demand service, just like electricity from a power grid. These resources are stored inside data centres.