Data Center Developer Switch in Talks to Raise Billions at $50 Billion-Plus Valuation
The Takeaway
- Data center developer Switch in talks to raise funding at $50 billion valuation.
- Fundraising could set up Switch for a possible initial public offering.
- Brookfield, KKR have discussed investment in company.
Data center developer Switch is in talks to raise billions of dollars at a valuation of at least $50 billion, as it seeks to capitalize on soaring demand for the infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence, according to people with knowledge of the deal.
Brookfield Asset Management, KKR and other private equity and institutional investors have been in talks to invest in the round, people familiar with the matter said. Their conversations are early and there is no guarantee they will lead to a deal. Terms of the funding round could still change and the discussions could still fall apart.
If Switch notched a more than $50 billion valuation, it would make Switch one of the most valuable privately held data center operators. It would also be roughly five times the company’s $11 billion valuation, including debt, when it was taken private in 2022. Last year, a consortium of investors bought Aligned Data Centers in a transaction that valued the company at roughly $40 billion. It’s not clear if the $50 billion valuation would include Switch’s debt.
The fundraising could set Switch up for a possible initial public offering that could come as early as next year, according to other people with knowledge of that discussion.
Switch is working with bankers at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to help raise money, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
Industry publication TMT Finance earlier reported that Switch is working with the bankers to explore options.
Switch operates several data centers in the U.S. and was founded by Rob Roy, its current chief executive officer, in 2000. The firm went public in 2017 and was taken private in 2022 by investment firm DigitalBridge and IFM Investors.
The 26-year-old data center developer’s scale and experience in developing multiple data center campuses had attracted Softbank as a suitor. The Japanese conglomerate considered a takeover of around $50 billion in late 2025 but abandoned acquisition talks early this year, according to a person briefed on the discussion.
Bloomberg reported that Softbank grew concerned about the size of the deal and its ability to manage running the data center campuses. It had already struck a deal at the end of December to buy DigitalBridge, which is a major Switch shareholder, for $4 billion.