Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) continues its global expansion with its latest plans to enter South Africa. The company is willing to invest $160 million to establish a data center in Johannesburg that is expected to open in mid-2024.
The data center will be developed in phases. The first one will have a capacity of 4 MW, and completing two more consecutive phases will increase the total capacity to 20 MW.
The expansion is strategic for Equinix as South Africa is "one of the largest and most digitally developed nations" in the continent. Further, a significant network of submarine communications cables from South Africa will help Equinix to build strategic links between countries and continents.
"This investment will give both South African businesses the opportunity to expand internationally and global businesses to expand into South Africa," said Eugene Bergen, the President of EMEA at Equinix.
"Both will be able to accelerate their growth by rapidly scaling their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multi-cloud architectures, and interconnecting with business partners through the Platform Equinix ecosystem of more than 10,000 customers."
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Global Expansion
The company entered Africa earlier this year by closing a $320 million acquisition of MainOne, a West African data center with a presence in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire. Founded in 2010 by Funke Opeke, it is one of the largest data centers in West Africa.
In addition, the New York-listed firm expanded its footprint in Southeast Asia earlier this year and committed to investing $40 million to build a data center in Malaysia. In October 2022, Equinix announced another $40 million investment to expand its presence in Bogotá, Colombia, and it plans to launch in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, the company reported $212 million as net income in the third quarter of the ongoing year, which was generated through $1.8 billion in revenue. It is now expected to close 2022 with revenue ranging between $7.240 and $7.260 billion, increasing by 9 percent year-over-year.
