Sweden's EcoDataCenter (EDC) recently announced a successful $478 million (approximately €450 million) funding round to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing. The funding, provided by a group of unnamed institutional investors, will be used to develop more environmentally friendly technologies and build new data centers.
This funding news comes just two days after a major EDC client, AI computing giant CoreWeave, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US. This brings EDC's total funding to €910 million (approximately $966 million). While Areim, EDC's parent company, hasn't disclosed the company's valuation and says it's not actively pursuing an IPO for EDC, Areim's investment manager Robert Björk stated, "We are focused on scaling EcoDataCenter and creating long-term value; a future IPO is not something we are actively pursuing."
EDC is committed to building more sustainable colocation data centers, allowing clients to bring their own servers and hardware. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), large data centers have enormous electricity demands, typically exceeding 100 megawatts (MW), consuming as much electricity annually as 350,000 to 400,000 electric vehicles. The IEA estimates that data centers account for 1% of global electricity consumption.
In this context, EDC not only meets the demand for computing power but also strives to drive industry change in an environmentally responsible way. EDC CEO Peter Michelson said, "We were the first in the world to build a data center using cross-laminated timber, and now Microsoft is following suit." EDC also uses renewable energy to power its buildings and continuously explores more efficient cooling and operational materials.
EDC's clients include DeepL and several "large-scale" companies. While these large companies build their own data centers, they also utilize colocation space from third-party providers like EDC to balance their load. Notably, EDC partnered with CoreWeave to build the first Blackwell cluster co-developed with NVIDIA in Falun, Sweden, to enhance Europe's computing capabilities.
The size of EDC's funding round highlights the value of data centers, especially in the context of the AI boom, where colocation data centers are key to significantly reducing capital expenditure for clients. Globally, investment in infrastructure is pouring into the data center industry, representing a convergence of emerging technology and real estate.
