Equinix readies datacenter expansions in Mexico, Colombia

US interconnection and datacenter group Equinix is readying datacenter expansions in Mexico and Colombia, including through new sites, the company’s general manager for Mexico, Amet Novillo, told BNamericas.

In Mexico, works for the first phase of the MX3 hyperscale site are expected to be concluded by the end of this month. The site, Novillo said, is undergoing final commissioning works (technical trials) and is due to go live in August.

“In Mexico we are doing something very strong. The size [of MX3] is going to be like twice that of a football stadium,” the executive said.

According to Novillo, MX3 will be used by “more than one” global cloud provider – companies such as AWS, Microsoft, Google and Oracle. Citing confidentiality agreements, Novillo did not name the clients.

With an initial budget of US$58mn, the facility will have 4MW of power capacity when ribbons are cut. Through subsequent expansions, Equinix expects MX3 to reach 14MW of capacity.

Equinix entered the Mexican market following the 2020 US$175mn acquisition of three datacenters from Axtel. These IBX (retail) sites serve the Mexico City and Monterrey metro areas. 

MX3 will be Equinix’s first hyperscale site in Mexico, and its second in Latin America, following the activation of the first phase of SP5x in São Paulo, last October, with 5MW of initial power capacity and investments of US$52mn. 

SP5X is expected to gain an additional 2MW in capacity by the end of this year, with US$17mn in extra capex. Additionally to SP5x, Equinix has two other hyperscale datacenters planned for Brazil.

All four hyperscale sites – the three in Brazil and Mexico's MX3 – fall under an investment of US$3.9bn in Equinix’s xScale global datacenter portfolio made by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC.

In Mexico, the company is advanced in at least two land and construction agreements to expand its Monterrey and Mexico City/Querétaro datacenter campuses, according to Novillo. 

“Demand in Mexico was very substantial. We have a very good response from the Mexican market. That has forced us to think about expansions,” the executive said.

COLOMBIA

In Colombia, works for the company’s second local datacenter, BG2, are going as planned despite problems related to the supply chain and components.

Equinix’s goal is to complete works for the first phase of BG2 in Q4 and have it operational in the first quarter of 2023, Novillo said.

“We have already passed the design, the budget definition and the supplier selection stages. We are effectively in full construction.” 

BG2 is expected to go live with US$45mn in initial capex with 550 cabinets for colocation capacity.

In addition to BG2, Equinix maintains the BG1 IBX enterprise datacenter in Bogotá, part of a set of 29 global datacenters it acquired from Verizon in 2017 for US$3.6bn.

In March, Equinix also entered an agreement to buy four datacenters from telecom operator Entel in Chile and Peru, in a deal valued at US$705mn. The deal includes three sites in Santiago and one in Lima. The transaction was closed last month.

In Brazil, its most important regional market, Equinix previously announced plans to invest US$420mn by 2025 in the expansion and construction of its datacenters.