Equinix Sees AI Driving Data Center Demand, Interconnection Growth

Equinix NASDAQ: EQIX sees enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence accelerating demand for higher-density data center capacity, interconnection services and latency-sensitive infrastructure, executives said during a Barclays conference discussion. Arquelle Shaw, Equinix’s President of the Americas, said she oversees growth strategy across the region from Canada through Chile and Argentina, including corporate development, business development and growth from investments. Shaw previously spent about six years as the company’s senior vice president of sales for the Americas. Equinix sees enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence accelerating demand for higher-density data center capacity, interconnection services and latency-sensitive infrastructure, executives said during a Barclays conference discussion. Shaw said Equinix has evolved its go-to-market model to serve customer segments differently, ranging from small businesses served through channel partners to large global enterprises supported by dedicated teams. The company has “almost 11,000 customers,” she said, distinguishing its customer base from that of other data center operators. AI is raising capacity and density requirements Enterprise customers have been increasing the size of their capacity requirements and deploying workloads that consume more power, Shaw said. She described a shift from 250 kVA deals once being considered large to megawatt-scale deployments becoming more common. While AI-focused companies and hyperscalers moved quickly to adopt the technology, Shaw said enterprises were initially more cautious. In prior discussions, many enterprise customers were still considering an AI strategy or dealing with “Shadow AI” usage within their organizations. This year, she said, those same customers have been more heavily engaged in developing and implementing AI strategies. “We’re quite bullish on what we’re seeing in terms of the future,” Shaw said, adding that Equinix is considering how to expand responsibly to keep pace with demand. AI is also increasing the importance of low-latency connectivity, according to Shaw. Not all AI workloads have the same latency requirements, she said, but applications requiring immediate responses are becoming more prevalent. Equinix designs its metro campuses to place workloads according to their latency needs, including in different International Business Exchange, or IBX, facilities. Interconnection demand and new AI products Shaw said AI is making enterprise networking more complex because data, computing resources and AI models can reside in multiple locations. That dynamic requires more connections and greater flexibility than traditional point-to-point networking arrangements. Equinix’s interconnection business grew 9% this year, Shaw said. She described the service as increasingly essential for customers that need to retrieve and move data among cloud platforms, models, computing infrastructure and end users. The company recently introduced Fabric One and Inference Exchange. Shaw characterized Fabric One as a connectivity offering designed to simplify how customers connect acro...