Unlocking development
Managing complex planning and construction
Data centre development involves navigating multiple interdependent workstreams – from securing land and planning approvals, to obtaining access to utilities and co-ordinating construction delivery – and achieving timely readiness for service depends on how efficiently these parallel processes are managed. For investors and lenders, development risk is a key focus area, as delays or cost overruns can impact project bankability and returns.
How are utilities and adjacent infrastructure accessed?
Unlocking development
Unlocking value across the data centre lifecycle
Decoding regulation
Grid challenges. smart solutions
Unlocking hyperscaler growth
Managing exits and maximising value
How we can help
Decoding regulation
Securing access to supporting utilities: Power availability remains a key constraint in many markets, but water supply and fibre connectivity are also proving to be increasingly challenging and need to be managed early in the development process.
Confirming utility corridors and easement rights: An important aspect of site selection is to ensure the ability to construct and maintain connections to adjacent substations, water supply connections, and fibre landing points. Where utilities are owned or controlled by third parties, co-ordination and interface agreements become essential, addressing allocation priority, outage response, and cost-sharing mechanisms for future upgrades or reinforcement works.
What are the opportunities and risks of shared infrastructure?
What land use and planning approvals are required?
What are the main construction considerations?
How are utilities and adjacent infrastructure accessed?
See our Data Centres capabilities page for more information.
Powering the infrastructure that powers the future
Data centres sit at the intersection of infrastructure, real estate, energy, and capital markets – sectors where we've built market-leading practices. We understand the technical, commercial, and regulatory complexities because we've advised on them across continents. Our clients include developers pushing the boundaries of hyperscale facilities, funds (and their financiers) deploying billions into digital infrastructure, sovereign wealth vehicles taking long-term positions, and operators managing the intricate relationships between power, capacity, and performance. We support you through every phase: site identification and feasibility, structuring and fundraising, permitting and construction, energy procurement, customer agreements, operational optimisation, and eventual disposition. We also guide clients through the regulatory crosscurrents that define this industry – data privacy frameworks, cybersecurity mandates, national security reviews, and foreign investment regulations. With teams positioned across key markets worldwide, we help you move quickly and confidently, no matter how complex the jurisdiction.
How we can help
Your ambitions, our expertise
Development: We combine global market intelligence with on-the-ground expertise to secure what you need – from utility access and critical infrastructure to land use approvals and construction frameworks that deliver on time and on budget.
Regulation: Navigate evolving national security requirements, engage confidently with competition authorities, and stay ahead of AI and data sovereignty mandates that are redrawing the investment landscape.
Energy: Whether you're connecting to the grid, selecting optimal sites, or sourcing renewable power at scale, our world-class energy practice ensures your data centres have the sustainable energy they need to grow.
Customer contracts: We help you monetise capacity effectively, structure pricing mechanisms that withstand market volatility, and negotiate agreements built to endure for decades.
Investments and exits: From structuring your first capital raise and optimising your balance sheet, including utilising debt funding options to leverage returns and provide liquidity, to executing sale-leasebacks and strategic exits, we're with you at every inflection point.
We combine global market intelligence with on-the-ground expertise to secure what you need – from utility access and critical infrastructure to land use approvals and construction frameworks that deliver on time and on budget.
How we can help
Find out more
Reduced capital expenditure and accelerated deployment: In multi-user or campus-style developments, shared infrastructure (such as common substations, cooling towers, private roads or fibre conduit backbones) creates opportunities and risks for operators and developers. Reduced expenditure and accelerated timelines are often key advantages, particularly where master developers or industrial park operators have pre-invested in scalable utility backbones.
Good structuring: Shared facilities arrangements should be clearly structured between users and the developer, and should address access rights, upgrade co-ordination, liability for outages, and mechanisms for future expansion or decommissioning.
Avoiding disputes, bottlenecks and obstacles: Particular scrutiny should be given to how capacity is allocated among multiple tenants, whether exclusive-use rights apply, and what happens when the shared system reaches its design limits – to help mitigate against the risk of disputes, operational bottlenecks, and obstacles to expansion.
What are the opportunities and risks of shared infrastructure?
Planning and zoning controls: These requirements are a key constraint shaping where and how data centres are developed. In many jurisdictions, data centres are classified as “strategic infrastructure” or a distinct land-use category, triggering additional scrutiny from government authorities – particularly in relation to energy efficiency, heat rejection, noise, and traffic management.
Special consents or deviations: As part of site selection, developers should identify whether the proposed use is permissible “as of right” or requires a special consent or deviation. If environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and community consultation processes are triggered, this can significantly extend timelines and delay revenue commencement.
Sustainability and resilience requirements: In many jurisdictions local authorities and planning agencies are imposing sustainability or resilience-based conditions (such as minimum green-building certifications or on-site mandatory renewable generation, and evidence of water recycling systems). Developers should factor these conditions into project design and procurement strategies as compliance drives both layout and equipment selection.
What land use and planning approvals are required?
Balancing speed to market vs quality certainty: Given the capital intensity and complexity of data centre builds, construction contracting structures must balance speed with cost and quality. Many developers adopt an EPC or design-and-build general contractor model to streamline delivery, while retaining control over critical equipment procurement (such as generators, switchgear, and cooling systems).
Managing interdependence risk: Data centre development involves an interplay between building works, mechanical, electrical and plumbing integration, and utility readiness. Delay liquidated damages regimes in development agreements should dovetail with downstream customer RFS commitments and interfaces between multiple contractors.
Procurement lead times: This is particularly important for critical long-lead equipment (such as transformers, chillers, and switchboards) and should be built into the programme and associated risk allowances. Some developers are also adopting modular or prefabricated build strategies to reduce on-site time and increase schedule certainty, though these models require early design freeze and co-ordination.
Financing the build: Financings for data centre construction may be structured either on an individual asset or portfolio basis. In either scenario, careful consideration is needed of the assumptions around construction and operation timelines to be included in the financial modelling and to ensure availability of sufficient liquidity and to avoid over-leverage. Portfolio financings may allow for built data centres (and their associated revenues) to be utilised as credit support for data centres under construction provided such projects under development satisfy certain eligibility criteria (for example, as to land rights, permits, access to power and end users).
What are the main construction considerations?
How is grid access and planning reshaping site selection?
What new models are emerging for power procurement and investment?
Why is renewable integration becoming a competitive differentiator?
Powering the infrastructure that powers the future
The data centre boom is colliding head-on with the realities of global energy systems, and the race to deliver capacity is increasingly constrained by one critical factor: power.
Across all the main data centre markets, developers are facing grid congestion, long connection queues, and rising competition for connections with other large-scale energy users. Electricity is no longer just an input cost; it's a significant constraint shaping where and how digital infrastructure can be developed at scale.
Investors, operators, lenders and hyperscalers are now thinking like energy companies, exploring grid partnerships, on-site generation, renewables integration and load-shifting solutions to secure sustainable, scalable power. The next frontier of digital infrastructure isn’t just about compute efficiency. It’s about energy resilience.
Grid challenges. smart solutions
Access to clean, reliable power is the key competitive advantage
Whether you're connecting to the grid, selecting optimal sites, or sourcing renewable power at scale, our world-class energy practice ensures your data centres have the sustainable energy they need to grow.
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How we can help
Limited grid availability: Access to power has become essential to global data centre development. In many mature markets, traditional power corridors are congested and new grid connections can take years to secure. Regulators and transmission operators are tightening access criteria and prioritising critical or renewable-linked projects. As a result, developers and investors are reassessing location strategies, moving beyond traditional metro hubs to emerging secondary markets with faster connection timelines and renewable proximity.
Securing access: Strategic partnerships with utilities, early engagement in grid planning processes, and innovative substation or private wire solutions are now key differentiators. Successful projects are those integrating energy and land planning from day one. The future of site selection is no longer just about fibre and land – it's about evolving alongside the electricity grid. Investors, operators, lenders and hyperscalers are increasingly exploring grid partnerships, on-site generation, renewables integration and load-shifting solutions to secure sustainable, scalable power.
How is grid access and planning reshaping site selection?
New approaches: Traditional utility supply contracts no longer provide the flexibility or certainty the industry needs. New models include long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), behind-the-meter generation, energy storage integration, and joint ventures with renewable developers. Some operators are taking equity stakes in generation projects to secure dedicated green capacity, while others are leveraging hybrid procurement strategies across multiple jurisdictions.
Financial investors are entering the space: With the increasing demand placed on energy infrastructure by data centres, new opportunities haven arisen for investors who understand both industries – and financial institutions are financing grid-scale renewable generation and energy storage linked directly to data centre portfolios. Securing sustainable, bankable power is now a cornerstone of data centre competitiveness and value creation.
What new models are emerging for power procurement and investment?
Renewable energy is no longer a branding exercise: Hyperscalers, operators and investors are being judged not only by their capacity to deliver compute, but also by the carbon intensity of that capacity. As AI workloads multiply and scrutiny over emissions deepens, renewable energy integration has become a defining measure of market leadership.
Pursuing integration strategies: The most sophisticated players are pairing PPAs with energy storage, demand response, and grid-interactive systems to achieve round-the-clock clean power. Others are pursuing 'additionality', directly funding new renewable projects to ensure genuine emissions reductions. For lenders and regulators, renewable-backed operations are increasingly viewed as lower-risk, future-proof investments. Beyond compliance, clean energy commitments are shaping hyperscaler partnerships, tenant decisions and community acceptance. In a constrained power landscape, the ability to scale sustainably isn’t just ethical, it’s a decisive competitive edge.
Why is renewable integration becoming a competitive differentiator?
What do new national security rules mean for hyperscale expansion?
How are antitrust regulators viewing digital infrastructure alliances?
Where are AI and data sovereignty laws redrawing investment boundaries?
As data centres evolve from niche assets into critical pillars of the global economy, regulation is quickly catching up. Around the world, governments are sharpening their focus on who owns, operates and connects the digital infrastructure that underpins AI, cloud, and sovereign data. This regulatory convergence spans competition and antitrust scrutiny, foreign investment controls, security and resilience of critical infrastructure, and emerging rules around AI governance and data sovereignty.
For investors, developers, lenders and hyperscalers, understanding these frameworks is now essential as site selection or power strategy. From Australia to Singapore, Europe to the Middle East, regulatory regimes are shaping how capital flows, how partnerships are structured, and how data moves across borders. The challenges and opportunities lie in navigating this evolving landscape with foresight and confidence.
Decoding regulation
Navigating increasingly complex regulatory frameworks with confidence
Navigate evolving national security requirements, engage confidently with competition authorities, and stay ahead of AI and data sovereignty mandates that are redrawing the investment landscape.
Find out more
How we can help
Data centres as critical digital infrastructure: In many jurisdictions, legislation governing security of critical infrastructure now extend to data storage and processing assets, imposing registration, notification and risk management obligations on operators and investors. These frameworks can trigger national interest reviews for proposed foreign ownership or operational control of such infrastructure.
Focus on transaction structuring and governance: This includes considering who has access to data, physical control of facilities, and the origin of key technologies. Successful operators are integrating compliance into design and due diligence, using transparent engagement with regulators to de-risk approvals. National security rules are no longer a hurdle – they're a defining parameter of scalable, investable data centre growth.
What do new national security rules mean for hyperscale expansion?
Competition authorities are focused on digital infrastructure: This attention is increasing as cloud, AI and connectivity ecosystems consolidate. Joint ventures between hyperscalers, real estate platforms and telecoms operators are drawing closer scrutiny – particularly where access to data, connectivity or compute capacity could give rise to market power concerns, distort competition or restrict interoperability.
Investors must structure alliances with clear governance: Investors and developers must also ensure alliances have transparent access terms and robust compliance processes. Early engagement with regulators can help secure approvals and avoid remedies that limit commercial flexibility. In a market defined by scale and speed, the ability to demonstrate open access and fair competition can be a strategic advantage, positioning partnerships as enablers of digital infrastructure expansion rather than barriers to it.
How are antitrust regulators viewing digital infrastructure alliances?
Reshaping where and how data centres are built and interconnected: Governments are increasingly requiring that sensitive or personal data be stored, processed and trained within national borders, driving demand for localised capacity. The EU’s Data Act, regional AI frameworks in Asia, and emerging US and Middle East regimes are all redefining compliance expectations for global operators.
Factoring legal geography into infrastructure strategy: Operators that can demonstrate secure, transparent and jurisdiction-compliant data handling are better positioned to win hyperscaler, enterprise and government contracts. As AI workloads grow, the intersection of data policy and infrastructure will help define the next wave of investment, where compliance isn’t a constraint, but a competitive differentiator.
Where are AI and data sovereignty laws redrawing investment boundaries?
How can I secure my customer's revenue commitments?
How can I manage power pricing?
Can I pre-sell data centre space before it has been developed?
Data centre operators generate revenue through long-term offtake agreements with customers – ranging from hyperscalers to wholesale, enterprise and government co-location users. These agreements, and the committed revenue streams that underpin them, provide the cornerstone of any data centre investment case. Ensuring the long-term viability of such contracts are key to the success of a data centre business.
The ability to commercialise available and future capacity is also critical to operator's growth strategy, and these revenue contracts can prove key to securing financing for buildouts and new developments.
Unlocking hyperscaler growth
Commercialising demand
We help you monetise capacity effectively, structure pricing mechanisms that withstand market volatility, and negotiate agreements built to endure for decades.
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How we can help
Think long term: Early termination or 'opt-out' clauses, as well as any volume flexibility or ramp-down rights, are key terms of any offtake agreement. Offtake agreements which include termination for convenience rights or shorter-term commitments (with multiple extension rights) can prove challenging from a bankability perspective (particularly if notice periods for exit or non-renewal are short). Consideration should be given to resisting termination for convenience rights or securing commitment to an early termination payment schedule.
Manage price-escalation: This is important for the long-term viability of offtake agreements, as price-escalation mechanisms (often CPI-linked) help protect an operator's ongoing profitability against reducing margins as their cost-base increases over time. However, with recent levels of instability in inflation rates, we are seeing some customers negotiating for caps on indexation and delayed implementation of price-escalations in exchange for longer-term commitments.
How can I secure my customer's revenue commitments?
Understand power pricing models: Some operators offer customers 'all-in' power pricing – wrapping power costs into their co-location fees based on a fixed power allocation. For hyperscale or other large customers, operators typically offer 'pass-through' power pricing – charging for power separately based on the customer's actual (sub-metered) consumption, factoring in the facility's PUE.
Manage power fluctuations: Operators offering 'all-in' power pricing must consider how they manage the risk of power fluctuations (eg, via a co-location fee adjustment mechanism, or by hedging risks via a PPA), and those offering 'pass-through' power pricing need to manage the extent to which all power costs are able to be passed through to customers (eg, increases in commodity and non-commodity power costs, and whether customers require a cap on PUE).
How can I manage power pricing?
Yes, it is common practice for operators to pre-sell space: However, operators must consider how their co-location contracts deal with delays to the ready for service (RFS) date and the remedies available to customers in such scenarios. LDs and, ultimately, termination rights are common remedies sought by large customers, who typically require committed RFS dates that align with their global or regional deployment schedules – especially where timeliness to market is increasingly important.
Consider amount and timing of delay payments: This includes grace periods and relief events, and the thresholds or sunset dates when LDs cap out or cease to apply (leaving a termination right as the customer’s sole remedy).
Consider the impact of RFS rescheduling: In exchange for an upfront commitment to pay for future co-location space, large customers may seek additional rights – such as rescheduling the RFS date and/or additional capacity reservations (which may convert to ROFRs on expiry of such reservation). Operators should consider the impact of RFS rescheduling on their future revenue streams and adopt appropriate limitations associated with any such right. Consideration should also be given as to whether additional capacity reservations will be offered to customers for free or should attract reservation fees.
Can I pre-sell data centre space before it has been developed?
How to model and manage risk?
How to structure projects strategically?
How to manage governance and exits?
Surging demand for data centres requires capital, presenting a compelling investment opportunity, offering stable long-term returns, strong growth potential, and strategic relevance in an increasingly data-driven economy – but it is an opportunity that comes with competitive pressure. The balance between risk and reward of the investment opportunity is more crucial than ever and requires an understanding of the unique characteristics of these capital-intensive, technology-driven assets.
Managing exits and maximising value
Share risk and scale faster
From structuring your first capital raise and optimising your balance sheet, including utilising debt funding options to leverage returns and provide liquidity, to executing sale-leasebacks and strategic exits, we're with you at every inflection point.
Find out more
How we can help
Modelling is essential: Given the competitive nature of transactions for best-in-class assets and high multiples across the sub-sector, investors' ability to accurately model prospective investments – in terms of both current operations and growth potential – is key.
Manage risk in material areas: Grid access, power allocation, customer contracting, and ensuring a read across of material issues into the transaction documents is fundamental in deal-making while balancing risk allocation with competitive pricing. Such matters are key to analysing the bankability of data centre investments. The availability of debt financing on favourable terms is central to ensuring financial viability, attracting reliable funding, optimising returns and mitigating risks associated with long-term operational sustainability.
Ceiling of demand and future risk: Where a portion of a platform's value is attributed to a development pipeline, further complexity is added. Valuing a development pipeline involves making numerous assumptions regarding the likelihood and timing of successful project completion, revenue arrangements, ongoing supply chain integrity and other critical factors – which may transpire not to be supported in practice. For data centres in particular, the pace of technological change brings obsolescence risk and given the extent of investment, there may be future overbuild risk at junctures within the asset class.
Managing scalability: Challenges can arise where bottlenecks slow deployment and inflate costs – particularly where developers and operators rely on significant leverage to fund expansion, which means debt‑servicing burdens can rise quickly. This can create structural tension between the need for rapid capacity growth and the constraints of financing arrangements with financial covenants modelled on assumptions around construction and operation timelines. When delays push revenue generation further out, the organisation can face heightened over‑leverage risk, reducing flexibility, straining cash flow, and limiting its ability to respond to further demand or market shifts. In certain circumstances, amendments to financing arrangements may be required if sufficient headroom was not factored into the modelling.
How to model and manage risk?
Structures should spread funder risk, optimise capital costs, and accommodate bespoke requirements.
Joint ventures: The capital intensity of data centres, combined with their complexity and the need for technological expertise and market access, make joint ventures a compelling option. Collaboration between investors, developers/operators and hyperscalers allows investors to share risk and scale faster.
Operating leases: Can support the revenue generating provision of data centre space and services, without the upfront (and ongoing maintenance) cost of the underlying assets.
Special purpose vehicles – unlocking investment and financing potential: Can support off-balance-sheet structures which offer the ability to isolate risk, streamline ownership and facilitate investment and a range of financing options.
Structures may include:
Yieldco/devco arrangements: To isolate operational performance from development risk while monetising performance of built assets to fund development and allowing different investors to invest according to their risk preference
Propco/opco real estate finance models: Separating property ownership from data centre operations to benefit from a lower cost of capital for the propco and subsequent possibility of recycling capital through a sale of the propco.
How to structure projects strategically?
Flexibility and oversight: Where investment is based on a growth strategy, governance and financing structures should support appropriate portfolio-level funding strategies and multi-asset growth (and, where required, enable cross-border expansion). Within platforms, strong management teams with proven track records of developing data centre assets will only be in greater demand.
Stay ahead of regulatory and technological developments: Protocols for upgrades to keep facilities competitive (whether improving cooling systems, power upgrades or network enhancements), mitigating cyber security risk and complying with an ever-evolving regulatory landscape all remain key. Access to clean, reliable energy, particularly in urban or grid-constrained regions, combined with ESG compliance and reporting obligations, will need to be carefully managed. Policy incentives will continue to influence where investors choose to deploy capital, while at the same time governments will continue to expand policy aimed at guarding against unfair competition and foreign influence.
Securing best value for investors remains paramount: Liquidity options which align with investment horizons, calibrated to maximise returns and achieve a clean exit, are vital – with investors across the digital infrastructure space increasingly adopting bespoke provisions to manage liquidity and downside protection. Platforms that scale quickly (whether organically or via bolt-ons) need to stay particularly mindful of exit options as growing ticket size and capex requirements may narrow the pool of prospective purchasers. This challenge is expected to further increase as major investors increase their exposure across the asset class with competing platforms.
How to manage governance and exits?
Unlocking hyperscaler demand
Grid challenges. smart solutions
Unlocking development
Unlocking hyperscale growth
Decoding regulation
Managing exits and maximising value
Grid challenges. smart solution
How we can help
Unlocking hyperscaler growth
Back to start
Managing exits and maximising value
Project financing: Many global and regional platforms utilise portfolio financing models. The benefits of such structures include: (i) lower cost of capital, with risk spread across a pool of assets (ii) they support fast development timelines with pre-agreed eligibility criteria for developments; (iii) they provide for evergreen funding capacity with stabilised assets providing credit support and cashflows to service debt drawn for new developments and allowing for old assets to be sold and replaced with new under the financing structure without the need to terminate the financing.
Securitisation options: Investors and developers holding a pool of stabilised income producing data centre assets, may consider securitisation options including asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities, and mirroring the financing techniques seen in other digital assets such as towers and fibre. Such securitisation structures can be complex and expensive to set-up and are typically best suited to hyperscaler and wholesale tenanted platforms.
Sale and leaseback arrangements: Help retain operational control while limiting financial exposure, allowing capital to be redeployed into higher-return areas, which may be particularly attractive in environments where debt financing is costly.
Structures should spread funder risk, optimise capital costs, and accommodate bespoke requirements.
Joint ventures: The capital intensity of data centres, combined with their complexity and the need for technological expertise and market access, make joint ventures a compelling option. Collaboration between investors, developers/operators and hyperscalers allows investors to share risk and scale faster.
Operating leases: Can support the revenue generating provision of data centre space and services, without the upfront (and ongoing maintenance) cost of the underlying assets.
Special purpose vehicles – unlocking investment and financing potential: Can support off-balance-sheet structures which offer the ability to isolate risk, streamline ownership and facilitate investment and a range of financing options. Structures may include:
Yieldco/devco arrangements: To isolate operational performance from development risk while monetising performance of built assets to fund development and allowing different investors to invest according to their risk preference.
Propco/opco real estate finance models: Separating property ownership from data centre operations to benefit from a lower cost of capital for the propco and subsequent possibility of recycling capital through a sale of the propco.
How we can help