Pure Data Centres, a UK firm backed by Oaktree Capital Management, is seeking to partner with some of the world's largest technology firms and others to build artificial intelligence data centers, with the goal of tripling its capacity.
The London-based company, which has historically run data centers used by cloud providers and large enterprises, is embarking on a "serial" fundraising effort to develop the type of facilities that house Nvidia Corp. chips and power AI models, said Gary Wojtaszek, Pure Data Centres' newly appointed chairman and interim chief executive officer. In doing so, Pure is aiming to become Europe's data center champion and hit a total capacity of 3 gigawatts, up from the roughly 1 gigawatt it has in service or under development today, he said.
For reference, a single gigawatt can power roughly 750,000 homes at any given moment.
Geopolitical tensions and AI advancements in the US and China have prompted government leaders and industry executives alike to warn that Europe is getting left behind, ratcheting up calls for the region to build a so-called sovereign tech stack. That has sent valuations soaring for the region's AI data center upstarts, from the UK's Nscale to Amsterdam-based Nebius Group NV.
"In every technology rollout, Europe is always a couple years behind the US, and that's what we're seeing here," Wojtaszek, who previously led the US data center operator CyrusOne, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "The wave is just starting to lap the shores of Europe, and it's going to take off quickly."
Pure's strategy involves partnering with other firms to build bigger campuses in more remote areas that can be used to run AI workloads. That's a departure from the company's current portfolio, which is predominantly made up of smaller, more centrally located sites designed to fulfill companies' cloud needs. Wojtaszek characterized Pure's leadership team as one that's especially adept at pulling together complex deals for electricity and land, pointing to a project in Ireland that's designed to be self-sufficient.
The company has deployed teams to weigh potential projects in countries including Finland, Portugal and Poland, Wojtaszek said. It already operates sites in London, Dublin, Abu Dhabi and Jakarta. Dawn Childs, who had served as CEO of Pure since 2023 and was appointed a dame in the UK for her service in engineering, is moving into the role of president and will be responsible for the company's outreach to governments on the challenge of powering AI.
Pure will need more capital to pull off an expansion of this magnitude. In this growth phase, Wojtaszek said, the firm is going to be "a serial capital issuer. You just need tons and tons of capital to continue to fund your growth."
When asked whether Pure will ultimately seek a public listing, Wojtaszek said the company will probably reach a point at which it will have to decide on that route, but he said that may be "years down the road." Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported in October that Oaktree was seeking new minority investors for Pure to bankroll an expansion of the developer.
Pure is among the few operators in the Western world that run data centers in the Middle East. The Abu Dhabi location hasn't been directly hit since the US-Israeli war with Iran broke out, but it has seen some shrapnel, Wojtaszek said. While the conflict has essentially put on hold the company's future plans in the region, he said he still sees the Middle East as a strong market for data centers in the long term.
"There's a massive amount of investment and focus going in there -- all the Middle Eastern countries are trying to take advantage of what AI is going to provide," he said. "Investments are going to continue to plow back in there."