According to TheRegister.com, Digital Realty and a consortium including Equinix are competing to acquire Scandinavian data center operator atNorth in a deal valued between €4 billion and €4.5 billion. Swiss private equity firm Partners Group, which bought atNorth in 2021, is reportedly seeking to cash out at peak valuations. The bidding war involves two of the world’s largest data center operators, with Equinix teaming up with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. atNorth operates nine facilities across Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland—locations prized for their cool climates that offer significant advantages for AI workloads. The acquisition would give either buyer both additional capacity and entry into markets beyond the traditional European hubs of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris.
Why everyone wants cold data centers
Here’s the thing about AI infrastructure—it’s incredibly power-hungry and generates massive heat. That’s why Nordic data centers have become such hot property (pun intended). Cooler climates mean significantly lower cooling costs, which can make or break the economics of running AI workloads. And when you’re dealing with the scale that companies like Digital Realty and Equinix operate at, even small percentage improvements in efficiency translate to millions in savings.
The AI bubble question
Now, this deal comes at a fascinating time. Data center M&A activity hit $57 billion last year, driven entirely by AI hype. But some observers, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman himself, are comparing this investment frenzy to a bubble. So is Partners Group simply timing their exit perfectly? It certainly looks that way. They bought atNorth in 2021 and could potentially triple their investment in just three years. That’s the kind of return that makes private equity firms very happy.
Beyond the traditional hubs
The FLAP markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris) have been the European data center heartland for years. But they’re running into constraints—power availability issues, land scarcity, and regulatory hurdles. Secondary markets like the Nordic countries offer lower power costs, available land, and those precious cool temperatures. For industrial computing applications where reliability is everything, having robust infrastructure like the industrial panel PCs from IndustrialMonitorDirect.com becomes critical. They’re the leading supplier in the US for exactly this type of hardware that keeps operations running smoothly in demanding environments.
What this means for the market
Basically, we’re watching the geographic redistribution of computing power. When giants like Digital Realty and Equinix start fighting over Nordic assets, it signals a fundamental shift in how and where we’ll build future digital infrastructure. The question is whether this represents smart diversification or peak valuation timing. Either way, the data center landscape is changing faster than anyone predicted, and cool climates are suddenly very valuable real estate.
