Equinix to Open a Strategic Interconnection Hub in Chennai

MUMBAI, India, June 25, 2024 -  In support of India’s goal of becoming a $1 trillion digital economy by 2027-2028,¹ today Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company®, announced its expansion into Chennai with its first International Business Exchange^TM (IBX®) data center, called CN1. This facility is designed to support the needs of enterprises and hyperscalers, including AI deployments, to help businesses capitalize on the digital opportunity in India.

With an initial investment of $65 million, CN1 spreads over nearly 6 acres of land at Chennai’s thriving tech landscape in Siruseri and is expected to open in Q4 2024. CN1 will be connected to Equinix’s three existing high performance data centers in Mumbai, providing robust digital infrastructure and ecosystems to drive innovation and digital transformation in India.

Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India, commented: "We are witnessing India's growing prominence as a pivotal data center hub in South Asia, driven by strong interest from major global players looking to anchor and expand their operations here, along with Indian enterprises expanding their digital infrastructure to support the growth of one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Equinix has the most hyperconnected data center campus in Mumbai with the largest concentration of cloud on-ramps, telecom service providers, Over-the-top (OTT) media service providers, internet exchanges and financial ecosystem. The addition of our Chennai data center will further extend this ecosystem to customers in Chennai. We are grateful for the support we have received from the Industries and IT Department, Government of Tamil Nadu; SIPCOT; and Guidance Tamil Nadu, which have facilitated our entry into the Chennai market."

Equinix CN1 will serve as a dynamic hub for startups, enterprises, network and cloud service providers, among others, fostering a vibrant environment for groundbreaking initiatives and transformative endeavours. This pivotal move will not only elevate Chennai’s status on the global stage but also unlock new opportunities for international customers seeking to capitalize on Chennai’s strong tech ecosystem.

Bolstered by proactive government initiatives and a thriving business ecosystem, Chennai showcases vigorous infrastructure development, attracting investment in the digital infrastructure sector. As Equinix’s second metro in India, Chennai presents customers with a dual-city redundancy option, enhancing resilience and ensuring uninterrupted business operations.

Highlights/Key Facts:

• Equinix CN1 will be located in the SIPCOT (State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd)  land in the Siruseri area. The location is approximately 28 kilometers away from the bustling Central Business District, holding a key position near to anticipated submarine cable landing sites. This strategic location lays the groundwork for Equinix India’s expansion plans, enabling the extension of Platform Equinix® to a key metropolitan area in India.
   
• Equinix CN1 is a four-story building and will ultimately provide a total site capacity of 4,950 cabinets when fully built. Scheduled to open in Q4 2024, the first phase of CN1 will provide 850 cabinets.
   
• Equinix recently opened a new IBX data center in Mumbai, called MB4, adding 350 cabinets to Equinix’s footprint in Mumbai. The company also announced MB3 in Mumbai, which is scheduled to open in Q4 2024, providing an initial capacity of more than 1,375 cabinets, and more than 5,500 cabinets when fully built out.
   
• Equinix hosts more than 300 companies in Mumbai, including around 200 network service providers and 5 internet exchanges. It is also the densest cloud ecosystem in India providing on-ramp to 8 cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. 
   
• Equinix’s facilities in India, including the upcoming facilities in Chennai and Mumbai, CN1 and MB3, are expected to be 100% covered by renewables. Equinix is on track to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, with a strong focus on incorporating clean and renewable energy coverage throughout its worldwide operations. This initiative extends to all facilities, whether newly constructed or recently incorporated into the company’s portfolio. In 2023, Equinix achieved 96% Renewable Energy coverage across its global operations.
   
• Globally, Equinix operates 260 data centers across 71 metros in 33 countries, providing digital infrastructure for more than 10,000 of the world’s leading businesses. In Asia-Pacific, Equinix currently has 56 data centers in key metros across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

Supporting Resources

• Equinix MB4 tech spec [Data Sheet]
• Equinix Invests Over $86 Million to Build Its Third Data Center in Mumbai [Press Release]

About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company®. Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational Infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners, and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences, and multiply their value while supporting their sustainability goals. 

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results related to the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; stock price fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX® and xScale® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; risks related to regulatory inquiries or litigation and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Media Contacts

Equinix
Annie Ho
annho@ap.equinix.com

Adfactors PR 
equinix@adfactorspr.com

¹ Indian digital economy growing at 2.8%, will reach $1 trn by FY28: IT Min | Tech News - Business Standard (business-standard.com)