Verne Global, an Icelandic provider of sustainable data center solutions for high-intensity computing, has been acquired by UK-based Digital 9 Infrastructure (D9), a newly formed investment trust that invests in a range of digital infrastructure assets, in a deal worth approximately £231 million.
Verne Global’s 40-acre data center complex in Iceland was built from the ground up to provide highly specialized data center services for organizations running high-intensity compute workloads such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, high performance computing (HPC), and supercomputing.
Founded in 2012, Verne’s Icelandic data center campus would power some of the world’s most innovative and demanding industries, including financial services, earth sciences, life sciences, engineering, scientific research and AI. Iceland’s stable energy grid would ensure that Verne Global can provide its clients long-term price visibility, while the local climate supports free cooling 365 days a year.
“We are absolutely delighted to become part of the Digital 9 Infrastructure platform. Its mission to support and develop highly resilient digital infrastructures that fuel innovation, but are also sustainable and inclusive, resonates tremendously with Verne Global’s own business objectives,” said Dominic Ward, CEO of Verne Global. “What Verne Global has achieved over the last decade is a fantastic accomplishment and is a great acknowledgement of the exceptional team that we have. We are hugely grateful for the support that we have had from our prior shareholders – Wellcome Trust, Stefnir, Novator Partners, and General Catalyst Partners – to this point. As we look forward, we are now hugely excited to be working with D9 and believe that we have the perfect partner to help power our future.”
Decarbonizing the Data Center Industry
Digital 9 Infrastructure plc is a newly established, externally managed investment trust which invests in a range of digital infrastructure assets intended to deliver a reliable, functioning Internet.
“Verne Global’s Icelandic based data center assets represent some of the cleanest, lowest carbon footprint data centers, globally. This is another key step to support decarbonizing the data center industry,” said Thor Johnsen, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point, D9’s Investment Manager. “For society to meet key decarbonization goals, we need to look for ways to shift energy consumptive activities to areas of surplus renewable energy. The digital infrastructure industry has an increasing energy footprint, particularly data centers, which need to become more energy efficient and green. However, as an industry we should not expect to just rely on carbon offsets in markets which are already struggling to meet carbon targets, but we need to attract data center demand to areas where there are robust sources of renewable power. We are thrilled to add the Verne Global platform to the growing D9 portfolio. Together with the D9 subsea investment in Aqua Comms, we are pursuing further fiber network opportunities to improve connectivity into the Nordics, enabling data center users reliable and low-cost access to the vast renewable and low cost energy resources of Iceland and the Nordics.”
