Goldman Sachs, Digital Realty co-founder launch $500m data centre operator
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Goldman Sachs, Digital Realty co-founder launch $500m data centre operator

scott peterson.jpg

The Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (GS MBD) has partnered with a management team, led by data centre industry executive Scott Peterson, to form Global Compute Infrastructure LP, a newly established global data centre infrastructure platform.

GS MBD initially committed to fund up to US$500 million of equity capital, primarily from its infrastructure fund, West Street Infrastructure Partners III, LP, to enable $1.5 billion in near-term investments deployed across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Global Compute intends to grow through a combination of acquisitions and organic development to serve customers in geographies with secular tailwinds and potential for data infrastructure growth.

Global Compute will focus on acquiring and developing facilities that can meet the growing compute, storage, connectivity and colocation deployment needs of global technology companies.

CEO Scott Peterson (pictured), the former chief investment officer and co-founder of Digital Realty, is leading the founding Global Compute management team.

During his tenure at Digital Realty from 2004 to 2018, he led all investment activity and was responsible for $17 billion in total deal volume across both M&A and organic development.

“Goldman Sachs is the perfect partner for us as we pursue global investment opportunities in the data infrastructure space,” said Peterson.

“Our combined global pedigrees and networks, together with GS MBD’s access to ample growth capital, will allow the Global Compute platform to not only serve the critical needs of our customers around the world but also create and unlock value for our partners.

“Our initial investment in ATM S.A. is an ideal illustration of this collaboration. We are extremely enthusiastic about our partnership with Goldman Sachs enabling us to provide creative solutions for our global customers.”

Peterson is joined by a number of executives in the data centre space; fellow DLR co-founder Christopher Kenney as COO, and former senior DLR executive in EMEA, Stephen Taylor as head of europe.

October 17, 2020, Global Compute signed an agreement to acquire ATM S.A., a data centre and communications infrastructure business in Poland from a consortium of funds managed by MCI Capital.

“We are incredibly excited about partnering with Scott and the Global Compute team,” said Leonard Seevers, MD at Goldman Sachs.

“We see a tremendous opportunity in the data centre space driven by increasing computing and storage demand and we believe the Global Compute team, backed by the global resources of Goldman Sachs, is uniquely positioned to deliver world-class solutions to meet that demand.”

GS MBD was advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. The Global Compute management team was advised by PJT Park Hill and Mayer Brown, while Global Compute was advised by Torch Partners, and White & Case LLP, with respect to the ATM SA acquisition.

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