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Equinix starts work on $40m Dubai data centre

13 January 2025

 

Construction works have started on the next phase of US-headquartered Equinix’s third data centre in Dubai, known as DX3.

UK-headquartered McLaren Construction Group is the main contractor for phase two of DX3, according to data first obtained by regional projects tracking service MEED Projects.

Canada-headquartered WSP is the project consultant, while Group Consult International is the structural engineer.

Dubai-based Black & White Engineering is the mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractor. 

Dawson Architects, also of Dubai, designed the project.

Equinix opened the facility’s first phase in May 2023, as MEED reported.

Located in Dubai Production City, the entire DX3 data centre facility will require a total investment of $100m, the firm said at the time, indicating that the project’s initial phase cost $60m.

When completed, DX3 is envisaged to provide 1,800 cabinets of capacity across two phases or a total footprint of 12,000 square metres, making it Equinix’s largest data centre in the GCC region.

DX3 was designed with a focus on innovation, allowing efficient power consumption in cooling, redundancy and scalability.

It is planned to be powered by 100%.

Equinix has two international business exchange (IBX) data centre facilities in Dubai and one IBX facility in Abu Dhabi.

In April 2022, Equinix and the telecoms firm Omantel announced a plan to build a new data centre in the sultanate’s southern city of Salalah.

SN1 is Equinix’s second data centre to be built in Oman after MC1 in Muscat. It will be the company’s fifth data centre in the region, alongside existing facilities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

SNI, which is also a subsea cable landing station, will host 125 racks in phase one, improving interconnectivity points for traffic flows between Asia, Europe and Africa.

The Middle East data centre market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by increased digital adoption and internet access. The region’s data centre construction market is projected to reach $4.39bn by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.99%. 

According to GlobalData, total investment in data centres reached $70.6bn in 2024 and is projected to grow by 5% to $74.3bn in 2025.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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