Data centre deals attract billions despite geopolitical tensions

{"text":[[{"start":9.05,"text":"Data centre deals are weathering a storm of geopolitical tensions and attracting billions in funding, despite some investors’ wariness about backing certain tenants."}],[{"start":19.5,"text":"Investors have poured in $58bn in financing for 42 data centre transactions so far this year, up from $34bn for 34 deals at the same point in 2025, according to Dealogic."}],[{"start":34.25,"text":"There are nearly 850 data centres under construction globally worth some $7tn, according to consultancy Oxford Economics. The US and China are out in front, with 228 and 98 projects under way respectively. "}],[{"start":49.95,"text":"Recent deals include Singapore-based DayOne plans to put €1.2bn into a new data centre in Lahti, Finland and partner with Finnish company Hyperco at another site at Kouvola, while in Norway Green Mountain secured a €371mn financing package in 2025."}],[{"start":70.85,"text":"However, some investors are cautious about deploying capital into the sector, despite booming demand for the digital infrastructure needed to support AI and cloud computing. "}],[{"start":80.8,"text":"“Data centres have become a proxy battleground for geopolitical influence,” said Kirsty Barnes, a partner at law firm Simmons & Simmons."}],[{"start":89.6,"text":"As the race for AI funnels global capital towards digital infrastructure, data centres are now seen as strategic assets and are increasingly assessed through the lens of investment screening and data sovereignty, she added. "}],[{"start":103,"text":"Some investors balked at DayOne’s Finnish project and Green Mountain’s Norwegian deal due to TikTok or its Beijing-headquartered parent ByteDance being a tenant on the sites, according to people familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":115.8,"text":"The companies’ presence caused some potential lenders to refuse to invest due to data privacy concerns and caution given the unpredictability of relations with China, according to the people."}],[{"start":127.64999999999999,"text":"The concern can go both ways. When Green Mountain was trying to secure financing in 2024, ByteDance, one of its tenants, had stipulated that no US investors or banks could participate, according to some people familiar with the matter. "}],[{"start":142.45,"text":"Some global investors were also wary of doing a deal because of geopolitical tensions with China, other people said. "}],[{"start":149.89999999999998,"text":"However, a financing package was agreed, led by Macquarie Capital Principal Finance, who were joined by Japanese bank Nomura, German investment firm Patrizia and Kommunalkredit, an Austrian infrastructure investor. "}],[{"start":163.79999999999998,"text":"DayOne, Green Mountain, Macquarie, Nomura, Patrizia and Kommunalkredit declined to comment. "}],[{"start":170.85,"text":"A ByteDance spokesperson said: “We partner with global financial institutions, including those in the US, as part of our ordinary course of business, which encompasses data centre projects.” TikTok has been working on storing European data locally to prevent it being accessed in China."}],[{"start":187.54999999999998,"text":"One investor said that due to demand, data centre owners often face the dilemma of choosing between a potentially more lucrative offer from a Chinese tenant, or what might appear as the safer option of an American cloud group. "}],[{"start":200.64999999999998,"text":"Some companies have also proved less contentious. Tech giant Alibaba, a longer established Chinese company, is seen as a stable and popular tenant for investors, several lenders told the FT. "}],[{"start":212.89999999999998,"text":"Meanwhile, Switch Datacenters in the Netherlands has been trying to raise fresh financing for a data centre on the outskirts of Amsterdam for more than a year, according to people familiar with the efforts. "}],[{"start":224.09999999999997,"text":"However, it has encountered resistance from investors given the operation has messaging app Telegram as one of its tenants, some of the people said."}],[{"start":232.09999999999997,"text":"Potential lenders have expressed worries over its owner’s alleged links to Russia, as well as the app’s content moderation and who is using its services, according to people familiar with their views. "}],[{"start":243.79999999999995,"text":"Two years ago, France opened an investigation into whether the app has failed to moderate criminal activity, including drug trafficking and terrorism. "}],[{"start":252.84999999999997,"text":"A Telegram spokesperson said that “allegations of ‘links to Russia’ are absurd”. They added: “Telegram has been blocked in Russia, our founder faces criminal charges there, and Russian authorities continue to fine Telegram for refusing to remove content critical of the regime and its war in Ukraine. Those fines cannot be enforced because we have no local presence in Russia.”"}],[{"start":276.79999999999995,"text":"They added: “Claims portraying Telegram as a safe haven for harmful content are misleading and contradicted by the facts. Our teams and automated tools remove millions of pieces of harmful public content every day, including terrorist propaganda and illegal sexual material.” "}],[{"start":294.49999999999994,"text":"ESR Group, an asset manager, is in talks with Switch about a potential deal, which could include providing debt or equity, some of the people said. "}],[{"start":303.94999999999993,"text":"Telegram’s lease can be terminated within the next few years and a new tenant found, assuaging the firm’s initial concerns about doing a deal, one of the people said. ESR declined to comment. "}],[{"start":315.6499999999999,"text":"Switch did not return multiple requests for comment. "}],[{"start":326.1999999999999,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781686360_5436.mp3"}