Mubadala Invests in Yondr Group

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund – Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala) – on Wednesday said that it will invest in Yondr Group, a leading global hyper-scale data centre developer, alongside Apollo via an existing investment from Apollo-managed funds.

Yondr, headquartered in London, is a global developer, owner, and operator of hyper-scale data centres. The company provides scalable data centre infrastructure for major blue chip technology players and has a contracted and reserved capacity of 878 MW, with 58 MW currently operational, Mubadala said in a statement.

Mubadala’s investment will support Yondr’s ambitious growth strategy, which has been developed in line with the rapid demand growth for hyper-scale data centres. Global cumulative data centre demand is expected to grow at an 11% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) by 2032, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), 5G technology and the internet of things (IoT).

The investment builds on Mubadala’s rapidly growing portfolio of leading global data centre assets under its digital infrastructure portfolio. In 2023, Mubadala invested in Aligned Data Centres, a leading pan American data centre company headquartered in the US that provides both Scale Data Centres (colocation) and Build-to-Suit solutions to support global hyper-scale and enterprise customers.

Additionally, in 2022, Mubadala invested in Princeton Digital Group, a leading pan Asian data centre company focused on expanding world-class data centre services to meet increasing demand across Asia.

Mubadala is also investing in major global fibre network providers such as the UK’s CityFibre and GlobalConnect, a fibre-based data communication and data centre service provider to enterprises across Northern Europe.

Exciting Addition

Senior Executive Director of Digital Infrastructure at Mubadala Mounir Barakat said that this investment marks an exciting addition to Mubadala’s rapidly expanding digital infrastructure portfolio.

“We are witnessing a strong growth in demand for hyper-scale data centres in response to the rising data demands from AI adoption, 5G and IoT, and Yondr will play a key part in providing solutions for some of the world’s fastest growing corporations. We look forward to working closely with Yondr and our investment partners to develop world-class solutions that create long-term value for their customers and stakeholders,” Barakat added.

Welcoming Mubadala as a key financial partner, Yondr Group’s Chief Financial Officer Chester Reid said that with Mubadala’s additional support, they were well-positioned to accelerate Yondr’s growth and continue delivering sustainable data centre solutions to our clients worldwide, meeting the increasing demand for capacity.

Aligned with Mubadala’s responsible investing mandate, Yondr is committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This commitment involves reducing emissions across all its data centres through energy-efficient technologies and the use of renewable energy to power its infrastructure.

According to BNN Bloomberg, data-centre operators have drawn interest from infrastructure funds with large pools of capital. More than $20 billion has been invested in the sector this year, reflecting the critical role these facilities play in supporting the expanding digital economy.

Regionally, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia want to become hubs for AI as part of their efforts to diversify away from oil. That’s kicked off a race to build expensive data centers to support the technology, the Bloomberg report added.