Vantage Data Centers Eyes IPO At $100 Bn Valuation Or Sale As AI Demand Boosts Sector

Vantage Data Centers is weighing several potential exit options, including an initial public offering (IPO) or a sale, as soon as next year.

One possible route could involve raising about $10 billion through a stock market listing that values the hyperscale data centre developer and operator at around $100 billion, as per a report by Reuters.

Such a transaction would rank as the largest data centre IPO to date.

The company is also considering alternatives including an outright sale or the sale of a stake, the report said.

Backed by private equity firm Silver Lake and infrastructure investor DigitalBridge Group, Vantage has held preliminary discussions in recent weeks regarding possible exit strategies and has informally engaged with financial advisers, it added.

However, no formal process has been initiated and deliberations are still at an early stage. The timing, size and structure of any transaction could change, while Vantage may eventually decide against pursuing a deal.

Data Centre IPO Pipeline Grows

Vantage's discussions come amid renewed activity in the public markets for data centre companies.

Last month, Switch had hired banks for a potential IPO that could raise up to $10 billion and value the company at about $80 billion.

CyrusOne is preparing for a possible IPO as early as 2027, underlining the growing investor appetite for AI-linked digital infrastructure.

AI Infra Demand Drives Interest

The exploration of a potential transaction comes as investors pour billions of dollars into data centre infrastructure to tap growing demand for computing capacity needed to support artificial intelligence.

Data centre operators are also drawing increasing interest from technology companies and other strategic buyers seeking to secure infrastructure for expanding AI workloads.

Vantage has raised roughly $11 billion since late 2023, including a $9.2 billion equity investment led by DigitalBridge and Silver Lake, as per Reuters. The valuation attached to those fundraising rounds was not disclosed.

The company has also recently partnered with Oracle and OpenAI on a data centre campus in Wisconsin connected to Stargate, the AI infrastructure venture involving SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle that aims to build up to $500 billion and 10 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity, the Reuters report said.