Asian data center firm GDS may take its international unit public.
Citing people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg reports GDS is considering a US initial public offering of its GDS International business (recently renamed DayOne) to raise about $500 million.
GDS is in talks with banks about working on the IPO and could start the process to go public this year.
Established in 2022, what was then GDS International was founded to hold GDS Holding’s data center assets and operations outside of mainland China. The unit officially rebranded to DayOne last month.
DayOne’s portfolio currently comprises approximately 480MW of data center capacity in service and under construction and an additional 590MW held for future development across sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia (Johor), Indonesia (Batam), and Japan (Tokyo).
After raising almost $2 billion in funding last year, the company is aiming to expand its footprint to 1GW. Investors in DayOne include SoftBank Vision Fund, Kenneth Griffin – CEO of Citadel, Coatue Management, and Baupost Group.
GDS Holdings was founded in 2006 and operates dozens of data centers across Greater China, including in Suzhou Kunshan, Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing.
GDS Holdings has been trading in New York since 2016 when it raised about $200 million in an initial public offering. It was listed in Hong Kong in 2020, with GDS raising around HK$14.9 billion ($1.9 billion). STT GDC and Hillhouse are existing investors in GDS.
Reports that GDS was seeking $1 billion in investment for its international data center unit surfaced in August 2024. In March of last year, the company raised $587 million for the unit. This was announced just days after it confirmed that it was looking to sell a stake in the unit.
