Sajwani, a UAE property tycoon, places a $1 billion bet on data centers.

• Hussain Sajwani, a Dubai property magnate, will invest $1 billion in developing Edgnex, a data center business with a worldwide presence.

Hussain Sajwani, a United Arab Emirates property magnate, plans to invest $1 billion in building a global network of data centers through his newly launched Edgnex venture, marking a shift from traditional brick and mortar real estate to digital solutions.

Sajwani announced on Wednesday that the company plans to construct data centers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He stated that the company aims to establish a global presence and has allocated a billion dollars for this purpose.

As the pandemic drives a shift towards digital work and play, Sajwani, founder of Damac Properties, sees data centers as a natural progression for his business, which has already built apartments, hotels, and golf courses in and around Dubai.

Sajwani stated that Edgnex, the new wholly owned data center venture he founded and chairs, has already reserved five plots for data center development, including three in Saudi Arabia, two in Turkey, and one in Ireland. Additionally, he mentioned that they have the necessary funds to invest in the project and have assembled a highly skilled team.

As the demand for data center infrastructure increases due to the pandemic, commercial real estate developers and investors are becoming more interested in this area as a way to diversify their investments. In recent years, major tech firms have expanded into the Middle East's data center and cloud computing space, coinciding with the growth of commerce and investment in the region.

AWS is planning to establish an infrastructure region in the UAE in the first half of 2022, following its initial foray into the Gulf with an availability zone in Bahrain. This move comes after Microsoft's launch of its first Middle East data centers in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2019.

Sajwani stated that we won't construct the racks, but instead, we'll rent out the space. Edgnex aims to lease its facilities to "hyperscalers" such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft for expansion into emerging or underdeveloped markets globally.

Edgnex plans to build 20 megawatts of co-location capacity, with a "hyperscaler" taking 15 megawatts and the remaining 5 megawatts being leased to banks and large institutions. Additionally, the company plans to roll out smaller edge data centers in the coming years, targeting a market worth $13.5 billion by 2024, according to a recent study by PWC.