100MW under construction, targeting 1GW.
Investment firm Bain Capital has launched Hscale, a new EMEA hyperscale data center operator.
The company will be led by CEO Oliver Schiebel, formerly CEO of German data center operator Mainova Webhouse.
Bain owns various data center companies that operate in different locales. ChinData, which it is looking to sell, operates in China; Bridge DC, a ChinData subsidiary that operates in the APAC region; and DC Blox, which focuses on the US.
This rounds off Bain’s recent foray into the European market after it bought 80 percent of Aquila Group’s data center business AQ Compute, last year. Aquila Group will have a 20 percent stake in Hscale.
It currently has one live 6MW facility - OSL1 - in Honefoss, a town outside Oslo, Norway. This was previously owned and operated by AQ Compute.
Bain says it has more than 100MW of projects currently under construction. This includes an additional 12MW in OSL1 and 10MW of BCN1, a facility located outside of Barcelona in Parc de l’Alba.
It also has a pipeline of more than 1GW in projects across Europe. OSL1 will be joined by OSL2 and OSL3, offering 200MW of total capacity at completion; BCN1 has a planned capacity of 50MW; MAD1, a facility near Madrid, will have 192MW of capacity at completion; and MXP1 and MXP2, built east of Milan, will offer 165MW at full build. These projects will be completed by Q4 2028.
Bain said that it had additional projects in London, Frankfurt, and Zaragoza, but details were not shared.
Michael Huber, a principal at Bain, said that this would be supported by a “multi-billion Euro investment over the coming years.”
Bain will work with Aquila Group subsidiary Aquila Clean Energy to source energy.
Bain is a private investment firm, previously helmed by presidential hopeful and former senator Mitt Romney. It has approximately $185bn in assets under management.
