Abu Dhabi's Mubadala to invest up to $500m in data centres firm Cologix

New funding will help the firm's growth plans in the US and Canada

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Mubadala Investment Company is to invest up to $500 million in Cologix (Dh1.84bn), a data centre specialist based in the US.

The investment will fund Cologix's growth in its home market and in neighbouring Canada, according to a statement. Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala's investment has been made alongside Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, an asset management company specialising in infrastructure investment which remains Cologix's majority shareholder.

“As a global investor, we continue to look closely at opportunities in sectors such as ICT which are rapidly transforming the world. Our philosophy remains founded on investing in innovative businesses with long-term growth potential and market leadership positions," said Khaled Al Qubaisi, chief executive of Mubadala Aerospace, Renewables and ICT.

"As Abu Dhabi evolves into a global technology and ICT hub, we will continue to invest in partnerships which will unlock immense benefits for all our stakeholders.”

Cologix builds secure, scalable data centres and has 28 interconnection hubs and five "hyperscale facilities" in 10 markets across north America. These are used by internet exchanges and cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Windows Azure, among others. It also provides colocation services for Fortune 500 customers.

“We have ambitious plans for the future and by partnering with Mubadala we have additional growth capital that will enable us to get to the next level," said Cologix's chairman and chief executive, Bill Fathers.

The global market for public cloud services is projected to grow 17.5 per cent in 2019 to $214.3bn, according to forecasts made by IT consultancy Gartner in April. It predicts that the cloud services industry will grow three times faster than the overall IT services market, reaching $331.2bn by the end of 2022.

“Cloud services are definitely shaking up the industry,” said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner. “At Gartner, we know of no vendor or service provider today whose business model offerings and revenue growth are not influenced by the increasing adoption of cloud-first strategies in organisations.