Bain Capital has made its debut European data centre investment by acquiring an 80% stake in Aquila’s data centre business.
The transaction which involves Bain acquiring the majority interest in AQ Compute, creates a partnership “with a targeted multi-billion euro investment volume” aimed at building a sustainable data centre platform across Europe, the companies said.
Founded in 2020 by Aquila, AQ Compute is a provider of data centre and colocation services, with an emphasis on clean energy solutions. The company launched its inaugural sustainable data centre near Oslo earlier this year and is currently advancing additional projects in Barcelona, Milan and other strategic locations.
Michael Huber, a principal at Bain Capital, said: “Having invested more than $1bn in real estate over the past three years, Bain Capital’s first European investment in data centres means we now have a truly global platform.”
Huber said the latest investment will benefit from and complement Bain’s experience investing in and building one of the largest data centres in Asia – Bridge Data Centres and backing DC BLOX in the US.
Roman Rosslenbroich, co-founder and CEO of Aquila, said Aquila will invest “several hundred-million euros” alongside Bain Capital’s larger commitment, with Aquila Capital providing co-investments.
Rosslenbroich added: “With our continued 20% stake, we will ensure AQ Compute’s growth aligns with our long-term vision for sustainable infrastructure, leveraging synergies with Aquila Clean Energy, a major developer and independent power producer in the clean energy space.“
Ali Haroon, a partner at Bain Capital, said: “The European data centre sector presents an attractive market opportunity, driven by robust cloud demand, a need for high-performance computing and AI deployments, and data sovereignty across the region.
“Through this partnership with Aquila Group, we bring a differentiated, renewable energy angle to tackle the ever-growing power challenges in this critical part of Europe’s infrastructure.”
Rafael Coste Campos, a managing director at Bain Capital, said: “We are thrilled to bring our deep European real estate sector expertise and our multi-layered experience growing companies with complex infrastructure services, tenant relationships and talent attraction to AQ Compute.
“Leveraging our global data centre expertise, we are well-positioned to meet the needs of this ever-growing and critically important sector and to build a market leading data centre operation in Europe.”
Markus Holzer, chairman of AQ Compute, said: “At AQ Compute, we are uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for data processing by combining innovative, AI-ready infrastructure with a commitment to sustainability.
“This partnership with Bain Capital not only accelerates our development pipeline but also allows us to set new standards in sustainable data centre operations across Europe.”
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