The drive to accelerate data centre development in the European Union as part of its technological sovereignty package (see EUROPE 13880/1) will primarily benefit American tech giants. In a study published on Wednesday 15 July, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) warned these companies are expected to account for 65% of the data centre demand in Europe by 2028, based on data from McKinsey, Arizton, and companies’ annual reports, amongst others.
Microsoft has 14 data centre projects in preparation in the European Union, followed by Google (with 9), Digital Realty and CyrusOne (with 8 each), and Merlin Properties, Equinix, and Data4 (with 6 each).
Of these companies, only Merlin Properties and Data4’s registered offices are located in Europe (in Spain and France respectively); the others are all based in the United States. However, even these two European companies count American investment funds amongst their shareholders. BlackRock holds nearly 5% of Merlin Properties, while 19% of Data4 is reportedly held by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, which is registered in Bermuda.
According to SOMO, “Co-location operators working with Big Tech are likely to be among the biggest winners of the proposed data centre acceleration zones – standing to gain between €8 and 27 billion from this expansion”.
See the study: https://aeur.eu/f/mx6 (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)