With a second data centre in Lisbon, Equinix is supporting Portugal as a strategic hub for terrestrial and subsea cable networks, strengthening country’s position as a gateway between the Atlantic and Europe.
Lisbon, 4 June, 2024 – Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings), the world’s digital infrastructure company™, is constructing its second IBX data centre in Lisbon. The new data centre, named LS2 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®), will be located adjacent to Equinix’s existing LS1 site, forming a dynamic campus and a dense digital ecosystem. This expansion will provide much-needed digital capacity to Portugal, enabling local businesses to grow and thrive while attracting international companies to leverage Platform Equinix® in this strategically located hub for international networks and businesses.
Lisbon’s increasing significance as a subsea hub makes it an ideal location for Equinix’s new data centre. The LS2 facility – representing an initial planned investment of around 50 million euros – will serve as a vital gateway to Europe from Africa as well as serving as a key connection point for data communications between the Latin America, Europe and North America. Equinix’s global platform, comprising of 260 data centres worldwide, including key Atlantic and Mediterranean cities such as Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Genoa, and Milan, will further strengthen the digital connectivity across Southern Europe.
According to Carlos Paulino, Managing Director of Equinix in Portugal, “The surge in demand we are seeing from companies in Lisbon and across the Atlantic and Mediterranean makes this investment timely and significant. Lisbon has the potential to become a dense and valuable strategic hub, and we are delighted to contribute to its growth and position ourselves as the cornerstone of Europe.”
The new Equinix LS2 data centre in Lisbon, due to open in the first quarter of 2025, will create around 30 new direct and indirect high skilled jobs and will accommodate 2050 square meters of colocation space, offering scalable technical space and fully redundant power supplies, that deliver leading operational resiliency and world-class security when fully built. Together, the existing LS1 and the new LS2 Lisbon data centres will provide 2000+ cross-connections and network connectivity services for 100+ business customers, 45+ networks and 4 Internet Exchanges.
Equinix’s Lisbon sites offer customers the opportunity to be part of a highly connected digital ecosystem, including a dense mix of top global networks, cloud service providers, digital content companies, social media platforms and direct connectivity to all submarine cable landing stations in Portugal. Customers can leverage Equinix’s digital services – such as Equinix Fabric™ to build secure and scalable digital infrastructure rapidly.
Equinix remains committed to sustainability and environmental responsibility. The LS2 data centre is planned to be covered by 100% renewable energy and has achieved a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. As the first company in the data centre industry to commit to becoming climate neutral globally by 2030, Equinix remains committed to reducing emissions and source clean and renewable energy for its global platform.
Judith Gardiner, Vice President for Growth and Emerging Markets at Equinix, emphasized the significance of addressing digital demand sustainably: “Equinix is committed to supporting the sustainable growth of the Internet to serve economies across the world. Lisbon has immense potential to become a valuable strategic hub for international businesses scaling their operations across Europe, the Americas and Africa. Our newest Lisbon IBX solidifies Equinix’s position as the leading connectivity provider for southern Europe, serving the world’s digital infrastructure needs beautifully.”
Enhancing Portugal’s role as a subsea cable hub
Since the beginning of international telecommunications, Portugal has been an important location on the global network map. Our country was the first to have direct fiber connectivity to all continents. Today, there are 11 subsea cables landing in the Lisbon area, with connectivity to 91 land stations and 62 countries.
The new Equinix LS2 data centre in Lisbon will further enhance Portugal’s role as one of the key subsea cable hubs in the world. All subsea cables landing in the Lisbon area end-up in Equinix data centres in the Portuguese capital, including the EllaLink, from Portugal to Brazil (with 100 Tbps); the Equiano, from Portugal to South Africa (owned by Google, with 144 Tbps); the 2Africa, circumnavigating the African continent (owned by China Mobile, Meta, Orange, Vodafone, etc., with 240 Tbps); the Medusa System, crossing the Mediterranean (owned by an European consortium, with 480 Tbps); or the Nuvem, from Portugal to the U.S. (owned by Google, with 360 Tbps).
Portugal’s strategic geographic position is ideal to serve as a hub between Southern Europe, Africa and Latin America:
- Regarding Africa, International internet bandwidth into this continent grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44% between 2019 and 2023, the fastest growth of any continent by far. Nevertheless, today more than 850 million Africans still lack basic internet connectivity. But the Equiano and 2Africa cable systems will help change that, providing the foundation for digital growth in Africa.
- Lisbon also plays a key role in driving digital growth in Latin America. The EllaLink cable system, launched in 2021, became the first cable to directly link Europe with South America, bypassing the U.S., simplifying data sovereignty issues and reducing latency.
- Lisbon has also a major role to play in the Mediterranean corridor, enhancing redundancy. That’s why the Medusa cable system is scheduled to connect Lisbon with Egypt, with branches landing in various European and North African markets along the way. When it launches in 2025, Medusa will be the first new cable system between Lisbon and the Mediterranean in more than 15 years.
Additional content:
- Lisbon: A Digital Gateway Enabling Growth and Resilience (Equinix Blog)
- How to Build Sustainable Subsea Cable Networks (Equinix Blog)
About Equinix
Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company®. Digital leaders harness Equinix’s trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organisations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results related to the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX® and xScale® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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