Nuveen JV Invests in Prime Data Centers

The joint venture of Nuveen and Snowhawk has become an equity investor in Prime Data Centers, supporting the operator’s further expansion across North America and Europe. The partners joined existing investors such as Macquarie Capital, Siemens Financial Services and Ares Management.

The equity investment is part of Prime’s broader multibillion-dollar strategy focused on raising more than $2 billion in 2025. The data center operator is now positioned to leverage on the data center demand in power-constrained markets, with more than 1 gigawatts in critical IT load deliverable between this year and 2028.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP represented Snowhawk and Nuveen as legal counsel. Guggenheim Partners Inc. and Moelis & Co. LLC worked on behalf of Prime Data Centers as joint financial advisors, while Goodwin Procter LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP worked as legal counsel.

A consistent expansion

Prime currently has a 4-gigawatt power capacity spread across key markets in the U.S. such as Chicago, Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. Its Europe locations include Frankfurt, Berlin, Helsinki and Madrid.

The firm has six data enter campuses currently in operation in Dallas, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Calif., Santa Clara, Calif. and San Jose, Calif. Its under-construction pipeline includes projects in Dallas, Santa Clara and Chicago.

Prime ventured outside California for the first time in 2021, when it entered the Chicago market. The $1 billion campus was designed to include three buildings totaling 750,000 square feet and a total capacity of 150 megawatts.

Two years later, the company unveiled plans for its Phoenix campus. At the time, the project called for a 1.3 million-square-foot, five-building complex with a capacity of 210 megawatts in Avondale, Ariz. Completion is expected during this year’s third quarter.

Data center sector sees investment surge

As colocation data center inventory growth slowed down during the first quarter of this year, the competition for AI development and deployment grew stronger, according to an Avison Young report.

Recently, EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure completed a $235 million asset-backed securitization deal. This agreement will help refinance construction loans and fund green data center projects as the company is expands its footprint.

Meanwhile, CoreWeave plans to invest $6 billion in a new data center facility in Lancaster, Pa., with Chirisa Technology Parks and Machine Investment Group as development partners. This project will provide up to 300 megawatts of power at full build-out.

Also last month, Menlo Equities launched a dedicated data center platform. The new entity will purchase and develop mission-critical digital infrastructure across the country and has already 225 megawatts of capacity in its pipeline.