数据中心解锁：什么是新的，什么是重要的

Legal perspectives and developingtrends in today’s data center landscape Introduction The AI boom has triggered an extraordinary surge in global data centerdevelopment and is driving a fundamental redesign of facility architecture,site selection and investment strategy. Market research suggests the futureglobal data center market could reach USD 600 billion to 700 billion by 2030,with an average annual growth rate of approximately 11%1. Unprecedentedcapital expenditures in AI infrastructure are projected to keep pace with thedemand for compute power. As digital transformation accelerates across industries,data centers have emerged as the foundationalinfrastructure powering artificial intelligence (AI),cloud computing and enterprise technology. Taxconsiderations, including incentives, across every phase of thedata center lifecycle, from finance and structuring to operations andexit planning. Design and build, as the cornerstone of data center development,including land acquisition, planning approvals/licences to operateand delivery models. Their role in supporting high-density computingmakes them essential to national digital strategiesand private sector innovation. Power, as a critical input and also a strategic driver in data centerplanning—particularly given sustainability challenges, infrastructurelimitations, growing energy demands and regulatory pressures. Data centers are scale-dependent enterprises, requiring substantial resources,including financial capital, land and power, to set up and operate suchfacilities effectively. The business environment for their development iscomplex and dynamic, encompassing a range of legal considerations. Forbusinesses operating in this sector this requires a holistic approach aroundstrategic transactions, regulatory compliance and innovative solutions. Data centeroperations, managing customer contracts while addressing AI,data and cybersecurity risks, and trade and export control restrictions. Sustainability is a key theme running through a number of the deep dives. Aimed at helping data center developers, investors and operators achievebusiness success, we provide core topic overviews and key issue deepdives, covering: The evolvingfinancing and investmentlandscape, as major sectorplayers consistently seek new ways of raising capital to supportdevelopment and growth plans, and unprecedented demand fordata center capacity presents compelling opportunities for financingand investment. Contents DATA CENTERS OVERVIEW DATA CENTERS DEEP DIVES Powering Data Centers:Supply options and layeredstrategies Breaking New Ground:Considerations for datacenter land acquisitions Key TaxConsiderations Building the Backbone:Legal considerations indata center construction Operations13 Lead Authors15 As data centers are extremely capital intensive, the financing of their development and expansion is a key challengefor developers and operators. In a series of deep dives, we consider capitalization, capital recycling and monetization,with an in-depth focus on REITs. Capital recycling Monetization REITs Data center financing and investment structures have developed overrecent years to draw on key structural and financing terms fromtraditional corporate finance, real estate and project finance structures,with the particular blend of such terms based on a number of factors,including project status (e.g., under development or stabilized,and in the case of development, depending on other factors such asstatus of power, planning and pre-letting), whether they are financinga portfolio or single asset and the ultimate customer structure(e.g., single hyperscaler or multiple customer colocation structure). Data Center Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have become apopular financing mechanism through initial public offerings (IPOs)and follow-on equity or debt offerings. They offer institutional and retailinvestors a range of potential benefits, including regular dividend incomestreams, as well as portfolio diversification. For many developers andoperators, they can provide access to deep capital funding sources,lower financing costs and support long-term growth. REITs often benefitfrom a lower cost of capital due to their tax-advantaged structure. Over recent years, many operators were taken private with strategiesto materially increase capital expenditure and operate at a significantlyhigher leverage than the public markets would permit. Now, privateplatforms have mixed portfolios of stabilized data centers as well asmultiple sites at various stages of development. Managing capital demands to enable the increased scale of developmentcosts means developers and operators are considering strategic alternativesto enable both an exit channel for stabilized assets, as well as a means toraise additional funds for the next phase of development. Those alternativescan include, among others: selling a non-controlling stake to a financial sponsor;monetizing a set of stabilized (