Blackstone-owned data centre firm AirTrunk is seeking a S$ 2.2 billion green loan for a new greenfield project in Singapore as part of its expansion plans in the region, according to a report by Business Times, citing sources familiar with the matter. The proceeds will be used to fund Australia-based AirTrunk’s 80.2-MW greenfield data centre campus buildout in Singapore until Dec 31, 2050, the sources were quoted to have said.
The construction will be carried out on behalf of one its key US clients, after which AirTrunk will lease back some of the power allocated via long-term contracts, the sources added.
A spokesperson for Blackstone declined to comment. As such, a lot of mystery surrounds this new borrowing.
Questions arose as to the location of the proposed greenfield data centre, and whether work has started. W. Media has just learnt from a reliable source that a contractor has been appointed but at the time of publication, it is still unclear whether this new data center with huge capacity comes under AirTrunk’s approved allocation under DC-CFA facility, or is additional to it outside of the DC-CFA.
DC-CFA stands for Data Centre – Call for Application (DC-CFA) exercise in which applications for new data centres and their capacity are approved based on a list of sustainability and economic criteria. In 2023, when the DC-CFA winners were announced, AirTrunk was one of four winning operators awarded 20MW of new capacity each.
To date, AirTrunk has an operational SGP1 data centre campus in Loyang, which launched in 2020 as a “60+” MW data centre, and is now a “78+” MW campus, according to its website. AirTrunk is also in the process of wrapping up a separate US$ 2.8 billion-equivalent sustainability-linked loan.
Artificial intelligence advances are fuelling demand for data centre financing in Asia, a region that has seen a series of record-breaking loans recently. Among the recent financings, Bain Capital-owned Bridge Data Centers obtained a US$ 2.8 billion facility for its operations in Malaysia, while DayOne launched a US$ 3.4 billion-equivalent borrowing into the market.