Stonepeak-Backed Digital Edge Secures $1.6B for Asia Expansion

Data center operator Digital Edge announced on Monday that it has raised over $1.6 billion in equity and debt financing, with the capital earmarked for expanding its data center infrastructure in Asia.

The deal mix includes $640 million in equity and $1 billion in debt. The equity raise, Digital Edge says, was oversubscribed and has attracted large global institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds as new co-investors.

“This efficient and flexible funding will accelerate the continued execution of our vision, enabling us to further build-out our digital infrastructure to better meet our customers’ cloud, AI, and interconnection requirements,” said Digital Edge president John Freeman.

As the data center market in Asia is rapidly expanding, companies like Digital Edge are increasing capacity to meet growing demand in the region. Digital Edge’s most recent projects include the opening of its third data center in Korea in October 2024 and an expansion facility in Indonesia earlier that year.

Asian Optimism

Among projects in Digital Edge’s pipeline for this year include the first facility in its 300 MW campus in Navi Mumbai, slated for compilation in the second quarter of 2025. They are also set to complete a hyperscale edge facility in downtown Tokyo known as TY07, Digital Edge’s ninth data center facility in Japan.

“Digital Edge’s US$1.6 billion raise sets a strong precedent, signaling investor confidence and likely prompting similar moves by competitors to scale rapidly and remain competitive in the region,” Jack Harkness, Asia industrial, logistics, and data centres director for Savills told Mingtiandi.

Digital Edge currently owns and operates 21 data centers across Asia with about 500 MW of critical IT load in service and under construction. The operator said it also has an additional 300 MW reserved for future development across Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Leading data center operators are ramping up their expansion, with Asia becoming a key battleground. In October, Equinix announced a $500 million investment plan for Thailand, while Digital Realty told Mingtiandi in September that it plans to expand its business in Southeast Asia and India.

Just last week, the international arm of one of China’s largest data center firms, GDS, relaunched as “DayOne” after a fund raising round which was upsized to $1.2 billion in December as investors including Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin backed its expansion beyond China.

Funding Race

The growing demand in the region will likely drive others to raise funds as well, Savills’ said, as companies race to expand their infrastructure to support cloud and AI services.

“An uptick in fundraising activity in the hyperscale data center industry is highly likely as demand for cloud and AI infrastructure grows. Hyperscale data centers require significant capital for land, construction, and technological advancements, especially to support high-performance AI workloads and meet sustainability goals,” Harkness said.

The industrial specialist added that expanding green financing options and rising interest from institutional investors will accelerate this trend, as operators vie to expand their portfolios in underserved regions like Southeast Asia.

DC Byte senior analyst Vivian Wong, also anticipates an uptick in fundraising by players in the region, told Mingtiandi that investors are increasingly viewing hyperscale data centers as resilient, long-term assets, especially as governments boost support for digital infrastructure.

“Capital inflows are expected not only from traditional infrastructure funds but also from sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors seeking stable returns,” Wong said.

Data center capacity in Asia Pacific is forecast to grow at nearly 20% annually on average through 2028, according to a Moody’s Ratings report from last year, with an estimated total investment of around $564 billion in the next three years.