EdgeConneX Enters China With Strategic Investment in Chayora

Data center developer EdgeConneX has made a strategic investment in Chayora, a leading data center provider in China. The partnership provides EdgeConneX with data center offerings in Beijing and Shanghai, two of the largest markets in China, along with the ability to scale out Chayora’s platform to other major markets throughout mainland China.

Infrastructure fund Actis will remain as the “major shareholder” in Chayora beyond the initial completion of the transaction, the companies said in a press release.

The deal continue the globalization of the EdgeConneX platform, with began with a network of edge data centers in second-tier cities, and now extends to hyperscale campuses in major markets across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The company’s expansion has been supported by EQT Infrastructure, the global fund which acquired EdgeConneX in 2020. EQT funding will support additional data center campuses in China beyond Chayora’s initial two campuses.

EdgeConneX Builds its Global Presence

The EdgeConneX footprint now spans 50 markets across four continents, and when combined with Chayora’s data center offerings in China, provides a worldwide platform that can serve workloads from the edge to the cloud.

“Over the last ten years, EdgeConneX built out its global data center platform by working with our customers to give them the data center capacity where they want it, when they want it and at the scale they want it,” said Randy Brouckman, CEO of EdgeConneX. “As our customers look for solutions in the APAC region, it’s vital that we include a data center presence and team in China.

“The investment in Chayora provides EdgeConneX customers with an ideal data center partner that can support their digital infrastructure requirements in China,” said Brouckman. “At the same time, the EdgeConneX global platform can support Chinese firms that have international requirements. It’s a win-win for customers as EdgeConneX and Chayora can provide a comprehensive data center platform domestically in China and internationally in any global market that can support a full spectrum of hyperlocal to hyperscale deployments.”

Accelerating Chayora’s Development

Chayora operates an existing carrier-neutral data center campus serving Beijing and a new campus in Shanghai that is under development. The facilities across the two campuses can jointly scale to over 200megawatts of IT load with access to 100% renewable energy.

“China represents the largest and one of the most challenging markets for global digital infrastructure users and through the team we have built in Chayora, we can address all demands, to any scale for the world’s largest data center customers,” said Oliver Jones, CEO of Chayora Holdings. “We are therefore delighted to bring EdgeConneX in alongside our existing institutional investment partner Actis as the global reach and recognition of the EdgeConneX track record and approach will help accelerate our expansion.

“We are also excited by the investment deal we have agreed in terms of assured capital availability at ‘China-scale’ to suit the characteristics of our principal market. Our team’s values and those of EdgeConneX are a close fit and this will be immensely valuable as we both take a big step forward together,” said Jones.

“As a global sustainable infrastructure investor with a long history of investing in China, we look forward to working closely with the EdgeConneX team to jointly support Chayora’s endeavor in expanding and growing its business in the China data center market,” said Thomas Liu, Partner of Actis.