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Data center rundown: December
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19 December 2024
It’s time for the FINAL data center rundown of 2024! Let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the biggest stories we featured this year – and what a year it’s been. The data center industry saw record-breaking investments, sprawling gigawatt campuses, and phenomenal growth.
So, grab your coffee, hot chocolate, or eggnog, and settle in. This edition blends a mix of standout moments from the year with a few fresh highlights from this month. 2024 was the year the data center industry hit mainstream media.
Top data center news for 2024
January: Vantage secured $6.4bn investment
Kicking things off, let’s rewind to January 2024 (this year has flown by, but January feels so long ago!). Vantage Data Centers secured a significant $6.4 billion investment, led by DigitalBridge and Silver Lake. This funding was aimed at boosting Vantage’s capabilities across North America and EMEA, helping to meet the skyrocketing demand for cloud and AI services in partnership with global hyperscalers.
February: Starwood acquired $850m stake in Echelon Data Centers
Investment continued to dominate the headlines in February, and Echelon Data Centers was a key player. Starwood Capital Group revealed it had acquired an $850 million stake in Echelon, valuing the company at approximately $2.69bn. The investment will support Echelon’s expansion, including new data centers in Ireland and the UK, reinforcing its position in the growing data center market.
March: Rising demand for AI sees US DC prices rise
With the data center industry booming, driven by the surge in AI demand and limited capacity in North America, it was no surprise that prices followed suit. In March, JLL and CBRE reported a 19% increase in data center prices. According to Andy Cvengros, JLL's managing director of data center markets, “Demand continues to be at all-time highs, and data center growth is rapidly expanding from core markets in search of power.” This issue has only worsened since then.
April: Microsoft was betting big on DC
At the time, leaked documents in April revealed that the tech giant, Microsoft, was looking to ramp up investment in data centers – an unsurprising move given the industry’s trajectory. The documents disclosed that Microsoft has expanded its data center capacity by an impressive 500 megawatts (MW) since July 2023, bringing the company’s total available IT capacity to over 5 gigawatts (GW). Additionally, Microsoft announced plans to invest $2.9 billion in building out its data center infrastructure in Japan over the next year, according to company President Brad Smith.
May: Planning and investment news took center stage
May was packed with major announcements, making it hard to pick just one headline. AWS revealed plans to invest €15.7bn in Spain to expand its cloud infrastructure in Aragón. Meanwhile, Google committed an additional $1.1bn to grow its data center campus in Finland, accelerating its AI business in Europe. Adding to the momentum, plans surfaced for a £3bn next-generation AI-training data center in Lincolnshire, UK.
June: Vantage and Nvidia steal the spotlight
It’s been an extraordinary year for Vantage and June was no exception. DigitalBridge and Silver Lake completed a landmark $9.2bn equity investment in Vantage, marking a pivotal milestone that will fuel the company’s growth and enhance its infrastructure capabilities in the data center sector. Meanwhile, Nvidia surpassed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company, achieving a staggering market valuation of $3.3tn.
July: Turner acquired Dornan
July’s standout headline was the acquisition of 100% of Dornan Group, an engineering and construction firm, by industry giant Turner Construction. The move aims to strengthen both companies’ positions in the European data center market. We can’t also forget Blackstone revealing it has hit $70bn (yes, that’s billion) in prospective data center pipeline.
August: All about the hyperscalers
Summer might feel like a distant memory, but the data center industry certainly didn’t take a vacation. In August, we reported that hyperscale data centers now account for 41% of global data center capacity. According to Synergy Research Group, the number of hyperscaler-operated large data centers surpassed 1,000, with more than half of their capacity housed in owned facilities and the rest in leased spaces.
September: XYZ hit the headlines
A bit of a shameless plug, but my personal highlight from September was our exciting partnership with Infrapartners. This innovative collaboration combines prefabrication with augmented reality to build modular data centers worldwide. By leveraging AR technology, we ensure precise, factory-validated modules, dramatically reducing construction time, costs, and errors.
September was a busy month, and it wasn’t just us with exciting news to share. Blackstone also made headlines by announcing its acquisition of AirTrunk for over $24bn.
October: DigitalBridge acquired Yondr
In a move many anticipated, DigitalBridge announced its agreement to acquire Yondr Group in October. Yondr will continue to operate independently within DigitalBridge’s growing portfolio, which includes Vantage, Switch, DataBank, and Scala. Meanwhile, Turner & Townsend highlighted some of the industry’s biggest challenges, revealing that rising power, labor, and capacity constraints are driving up data center costs amid the AI boom.
November: Nvidia DC revenue rises by 112%
Just last month, the news that Nvidia’s data center revenue surged 112% year-over-year, reaching $30.8bn in the latest quarter, was significant and underscored the company’s growing commitment to the data center industry. With AI continuing to drive this explosive growth, it makes me wonder if "AI" will top the word chart this year. This surge was fueled by the ongoing boom in AI, with demand for Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell technologies leading a global shift toward Nvidia computing.
December:
If you’ve made it this far (woo!), here are a few quick headlines from this month, in no particular order:
And that's a wrap! The final data center rundown for 2024 – what a year it's been! I’m excited to cover all the big news in 2025 and see where this fast-paced industry takes us. A huge thanks to everyone who tuned in this year; we’ll be back with more next year. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and New Year – while those data centers keep humming, I hope you get a well-deserved break!
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