DATA CENTRES
Yondr Group : Betting Big on the World ’ s Biggest Markets Yondr Group brought its first facility online back in 2011 , delivering 30 MW of capacity in Finland - a particularly sizable achievement given how much smaller data centres tended to be in an age when hyperscale was still more or less the sole province of Google and Facebook . Since then , the group has grown rapidly year-on-year , focusing on delivering massive builds at impressive speeds .
In May of 2021 , the Yondr Group announced a massive $ 2bn investment in expanding its footprint throughout the Americas . " The Americas represent a significant opportunity for Yondr Group ," said Dave Newitt , CEO and Founder of Yondr Group , earlier this year . " Already , the USA ' s data centre capacity alone is more than twice that of Europe . And it ' s continuing to grow , with a predicted 11GW of capacity in place by 2025 .” Keen to be a leading part of that growth trend , Yondr announced a “ global scaling strategy ” to massively grow its footprint across five continents by 2024 .
That strategy crystallised into definite action in June of this year , when Yondr snapped up 270 acres of land throughout Loudoun and Prince William Counties in Northern Virginia . The metro area is already the world ’ s largest data centre market and home to almost 170 hyperscale and colocation facilities .
Not deterred by an already saturated market , Yondr is betting big on continually increasing demand with a plan to build a full 500 MW of data centre capacity across the land it ’ s purchased , almost doubling its entire global footprint with a single project . Given the fact that Northern Virginia was previously sitting at more than 1.2 GW of total leased data centre absorption to
date and approximately 240 MW of critical data centre capacity currently under construction , Yondr ’ s project could still make a splash , even in this very big , very crowded pond .
“ As we mapped out our expansion plans in the Americas , we saw the growing demand from our client base to be located in Northern Virginia ,” explains Jones , adding that , thanks to its proximity to major fibre paths and access to cheap power , “ it ’ s no surprise that virtually every major data centre operator has a presence in this metro .” Work on the new sites is expected to begin before the end of the year .
As this is Yondr ’ s biggest single project to date , in a market where the company
44 October 2021