Shares in digital infrastructure group Equinix (EQIX) strengthened today as it sealed a $5 billion deal to buy a huge new data center campus in the U.K.
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Double Power
Equinix has bought the still undeveloped 85-acre site in Hertfordshire, just outside London, off a company called DCO1 UK. It filed a planning application for the site last year.
The site will feature three facilities with more than 250MW of capacity across 2 million square feet. That makes it one of Europe’s largest data center campuses and will more than double Equinix’s processing power in Britain.
Construction of the campus is expected to begin in 2027 and it is set to be operational by 2030. It will add to the company’s growing capital expenditure in Europe – see below:
“The UK is a cornerstone of the global economy and is a natural home for our most substantial investment in Europe to date,” said James Tyler, U.K. managing director, Equinix.
This is the latest in a series of moves by U.S. tech giants to buy into the growth of AI in the U.K. and Europe.
Continental Trip
Back in September Nvidia (NVDA) said it will deploy tens of thousands of AI GPUs across the U.K., marking one of its largest international projects so far. CEO Jensen Huang described the plan as part of “sovereign AI,” where countries build AI on their own soil to support local industry, science, and jobs.
The highlight of this plan is Stargate UK, a project announced by Nvidia, Nscale, and OpenAI. It is expected to become one of Europe’s leading AI hubs, with large numbers of Nvidia GPUs set to go online from 2026.
BlackRock (BLK) is also investing as much as $678 million into Britain’s data center market. The company has acquired a site in west London that will start a new venture with Gravity Edge, a data center operator. The venture, called Digital Gravity Partners, will look to purchase existing data centers with underutilized capacity.
Is EQIX a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, EQIX has a Strong Buy consensus based on 14 Buy and 4 Hold ratings. Its highest price target is $1,200. EQIX stock’s consensus price target is $954.63, implying a 13.58% upside.
