Brookfield-Backed Data Center Firm Files IPO Confidentially
The data center craze has at least one operator eyeing a venture into the public markets.
CSquare, a Dallas-based provider of data center services, announced the submission of a draft registration statement last week, Bloomberg reported. It’s a critical step in a confidential initial public offering process, which can allow engagement with regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission to take place in private.
Details around the IPO are largely unknown and to an extent, undetermined. Among the aspects up in the air are the number of shares that will be registered and their price range.
What CSquare does have is the backing of one of the most critical companies in real estate: Brookfield. The firm’s Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has supported the company once known as Centersquare, which operates 80 data centers across 30 markets, including New York and Los Angeles.
The company was formed last year after Brookfield Infrastructure Partners bought Cyxtera Technologies for $775 million and merged it with Evoque Data Center Solutions.
In October, CSquare was reported to be embarking on a $1 billion spending spree to buy 10 properties across the U.S. and Canada as AI and cloud computing fuel demand. The deal included several colocation centers in Dallas, Nashville and Toronto, plus two sites in Boston and Minneapolis that the company had previously operated under long-term leases.
For its part, Brookfield launched a $10 billion equity fund in November, backed by investors including Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority, to build and acquire AI infrastructure. The Canadian investment giant plans to use the equity, co-investments and debt to assemble up to $100 billion in AI infrastructure.
Other institutional investors are all over the data center space, despite the headwinds facing the sector.
This month, Blackstone registered “Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust” with the SEC for a potential real estate investment trust initial public offering, which could raise up to $2 billion. The entity plans to invest exclusively in data centers that are already operating and leased, avoiding development projects or raw land.
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