BlackRock is planning to invest up to £500m (€578.4m) in UK data centres through its European value-add real estate series.
The asset manager said it has teamed up with digital infrastructure investor DGP to launch Gravity Edge, a data centre operating platform that will focus on acquiring, expanding and refurbishing data centres in UK locations where power constraints have limited new supply.
Gravity Edge, which has already acquired a data centre strategically located west of London, plans to build out a portfolio of data centres ranging from 5 to 20MW, specifically designed for enterprise customers.
Gravity Edge is investing over £100m to modernise its first facility, which has the potential to expand to 20MW in the near term.
Thomas Mueller-Borja, global co-head of real estate at BlackRock, said: “Investing in the critical real estate that underpins our economies is essential for accelerating the digital transition. With capital markets largely focused on the hyperscaler end of the market, enterprise data centres play a crucial role in boosting overall compute capacity and serving UK plc with more sophisticated digital capabilities.
“With the launch of our investment programme, we are enabling our clients to access new opportunities across the data centre value chain and unlocking capital for what we believe will be a transformational platform in the data centre market together with our experienced partners at DGP.”
Thor Johnsen, managing partner at DGP, said: “We are thrilled to partner with BlackRock in building out this data centre platform in the UK, which has the potential to scale across select sites in Europe. Gravity Edge currently delivers mission-critical data centre services to a Tier 1 financial institution at an exceptionally well-run site.
“We plan to further modernise the facility, enhancing energy efficiency, enabling higher rack density, and unlocking additional sellable capacity. Our shared vision is to establish Gravity Edge as the default choice for customers requiring high-performance, mission-critical infrastructure, with operations designed for modern enterprise use cases in proximity to major urban hubs.”
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