Data centers are the unglamorous backbone of the AI boom. The chips get the headlines, but someone has to build the buildings that hold them, and those buildings are expensive.
DayOne Data Centers, formerly known as GDS International, is making sure it has the cash to do exactly that. The company is in talks with DBS, OCBC, and UOB for a five-year loan of HK$1.86 billion, or about $237 million. The money is meant for refinancing and expanding its Hong Kong facility, according to people familiar with the talks.
The borrowing would be handled through a special purpose vehicle, a standard structure that keeps the project debt off the main company balance sheet.
This Hong Kong loan is only one piece of a bigger financing push. Earlier in August, DayOne closed a four-year loan of S$530 million, about $417 million, with the same three banks. That money is funding its first data center in Singapore.
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The company is also planning to double an existing loan to roughly $7 billion. If that happens, it would be the largest data center borrowing by an Asian firm. That level of debt shows how much capital the AI infrastructure business demands.
DayOne is also expected to list on a US exchange. The company is considering raising about $5 billion through that IPO, and it could come as soon as the next quarter. All this financing activity is happening ahead of that potential listing.
The company completed a $4.5 billion funding round in June and rebranded under the DayOne name last year. It was created by GDS Holdings to run data centers outside mainland China, and it has attracted backers including SoftBank Vision Fund, Coatue Management, and Ken Griffin.
DayOne's website lists seven data centers in operation or planned across Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Finland.
DayOne is not alone in this race. Thailand's True Internet Data Center is seeking a loan of about $2 billion. And Blue Owl Capital's Stack Infrastructure is targeting an A$8.5 billion, or US$5.9 billion, syndicated loan for a facility in Melbourne.
The wave of borrowing across Asia suggests the AI trade is moving beyond the chip makers and into the companies that house the machines. Regional banks are willing to back these projects, even with interest rates elevated, which suggests demand is not a passing trend.
For investors, there is one important signal in all of this: the builders of the physical AI layer are spending real money before the revenue is guaranteed. DayOne is taking on billions in debt ahead of a possible public listing. If that IPO happens, it would give everyday investors a direct way to own a piece of the AI infrastructure boom.
The numbers are big, and market risks are real. But the willingness to keep borrowing and building tells you what DayOne thinks is coming next.
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