Private equity firm ⁠Actis⁠ is building data centers around the world while maintaining strict standards around sustainable energy, water and social impact. And the firm's impact is about to get bigger. Actis and General Atlantic recently merged to create an $87 billion investment platform, with Actis focused on the huge opportunity in sustainable infrastructure, largely in growth markets across Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

Digital infrastructure is a significant part of the investment mandate for Actis, with 17 offices across the world. The firm draws on its on-the-ground expertise in real estate, renewable energy and infrastructure to tackle the many burgeoning opportunities in data centers, wireless towers and fiber.

In a wide-ranging interview, Thomas Liu and James Magor, Partner and Director, respectively, describe a global build-out of data centers in global growth markets, most of which have not previously offered data center sites to hyperscaler customers. Each market has a very different regulatory regime, but most favor data sovereignty, and are led by governments aware of the developmental benefits that digital infrastructure can bring to their economies.

Driving the development are expansion-minded hyperscaler customers like Amazon and Microsoft, which are locked in a competition for AI dominance around the world. Liu notes these hyperscalers need local partners with insights into local regulations, and the ability to maintain relationships of trust with local communities. For example, Actis has taken a successful digital literacy program from its operations in Nigeria and started using it to engage with communities across Asia.

Liu and Magor discuss Actis' recent investment in Epoch Digital, a diversified data center platform with developments planned in South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. Magor says the importance of resilient building techniques was highlighted by a recent Taiwanese typhoon that hit Epoch's construction site there.

Liu explains the benefits of merging with General Atlantic, including an expanded investor base and the ability for Actis to draw on General Atlantic's deep relationships with TMT customers across the world.

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