Simpson Thacher is the market leader for data center transactions and provides one-stop, coordinated advice across the full lifecycle of data center investments.
In recent years, the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing has driven unprecedented levels of investment in the data center industry. As these technologies continue to evolve, the demand for digital infrastructure has surged with data centers serving as the backbone for data-driven innovation.
As the #1 advisor globally by data center transaction volume (Infralogic 2024 and 2025), we have advised on over $486 billion in data center transactions since 2018 and are unparalleled in our understanding of the market.
Our data center practice includes lawyers across digital infrastructure, real estate and many other relevant practice areas, which allows us to provide full-service advice to data center owners, operators and investors with a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach. Combining leading market knowledge with novel execution for the diverse participants in this sector, Simpson Thacher offers the tailored advice needed to handle our clients’ most important and complex matters.
Winner
Data Center Deal of the Year
Fiber Deal of the Year
Towers Deal of the Year
TMT Finance Awards USA, 2025
Winner
Digital Infrastructure Legal Advisor (Value)
Legal Advisory Trailblazer
TMT M&A Awards USA, 2024
We have significant experience in transactions across the full lifecycle of a data center investment—from development to stabilization and optimization, as well as financings, acquisitions and dispositions—which enables us to serve as a one-stop advisor to our data center clients. In an evolving landscape, our Firm excels in offering innovative solutions to address the most challenging issues.
M&A and Equity Investments: We have acted as counsel to numerous operators and investors in respect of a variety of data center acquisitions, dispositions and equity investments, including:
- Platform acquisitions
- Joint ventures and recapitalizations, including DevCos, YieldCos and programmatic ventures
- Equity investments in data centers and other adjacent areas (e.g., GPUs), including bespoke preferred equity arrangements
- Traditional real estate acquisitions and dispositions
Pre-Development, Development and Stabilized Financing: We counsel lenders and borrowers on a wide range of complex financing transactions throughout the investment lifecycle. In addition to financing of colocation facilities and powered shells, we have advised on financings of data centers leased to all major hyperscalers, giving us unique insight into the market for hyperscale leases. We specialize in structuring and executing financings tailored to the unique needs of data center operators, optimizing terms to align with their strategic and operational objectives. Our financing experience includes:
- Project finance loans
- Real estate construction loans and balance sheet financings
- CMBS, ABS and US private placement (including the first ever data center ABS and USPP transactions)
- Corporate facilities (including term loans, revolvers, bridge loans, hybrid facilities and NAV/holdco loans)
- DevCo facilities and pre-development loans
Energy & Infrastructure: As the data center industry continues to expand and power demand surges due to artificial intelligence and other breakthrough technologies, operators are increasingly faced with the challenge of securing the power necessary to meet their rapidly growing energy needs. Recognizing the significance of these challenges, we stand at the forefront of developments in the energy and infrastructure sector, providing clients with guidance through changes in regulatory and market conditions that impact their businesses. We provide innovative solutions to help clients build, commercialize, invest in and operate the data centers and energy infrastructure underpinning this technological revolution. Our team advises on the most complex aspects of data center power infrastructure, with deep experience in procuring, structuring and financing power supply, such as new build CCGT projects, modular simple cycle turbines, small modular nuclear reactors, battery storage and renewables—including front of the meter, co-located behind the meter, and hybrid power generation arrangements.
Fund Formation: We have advised numerous fund sponsors on the establishment of their data center- and digital infrastructure-focused funds and vehicles.
Data Center Deal of the Year, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2025
Towers Deal of the Year, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2024–2025
Fiber Deal of the Year, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2024–2025
Lawyer of the Year, Gabriel Silva, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2025
Top Legal Adviser, Data Center M&A Transactions by Deal Value, TMT Finance, 2024
Legal Advisory Trailblazer, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2024
Digital Infrastructure Legal Advisor (Value) Winner, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2023–2024
Digital Infrastructure Mid-Market Deal of the Year, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2024
Digital Infrastructure Financing Deal of the Year, TMT Finance Awards USA, 2023
Band 1 ranking in Real Estate: Nationwide, Chambers USA, 2010–2025
Real Estate Practice Group of the Year, Law360, 2011, 2013-2019, 2021, 2023–2025
Band 1 ranking in Corporate/M&A: The Elite, Chambers USA, 2007–2025
Top Rankings in Energy: Electricity (Transactional), Chambers USA, 2010–2025
Top Rankings in Energy: Renewable/Alternative Power, The Legal 500 U.S., 2013–2025
Top Rankings in Energy Transactions: Electric Power, The Legal 500 U.S., 2016-2025
Technology Practice Group of the Year, Law360, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023
Since 2018, our team has advised on over $486 billion in data center transactions, including the following notable transactions:
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DigitalBridge Group in a $9.2 billion equity investment round in Vantage Data Centers, led by investment vehicles managed by DigitalBridge and Silver Lake, named the 2025 Data Center Deal of the Year by TMT Finance
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Blackstone in the A$24 billion (US$16.1 billion) acquisition with CPP Investments of AirTrunk, the leading Asian data center operator, marking Blackstone’s largest-ever investment in the Asia Pacific region, and named the 2025 Global Deal of the Year and Asia-Pacific Deal of the Year by Infrastructure Investor
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DigitalBridge in its announced acquisition by SoftBank Group Corp. for $16.00 per share in cash, in a transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $4 billion
- Vantage Data Centers on a $1.6 billion investment in its Asia-Pacific platform by GIC and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and its acquisition of the Yondr Group’s 300+ MW hyperscale data center campus in Johor, Malaysia, the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia
- Prime Data Centers on a strategic equity investment in it by Snowhawk LP, a private equity firm, and Nuveen, a TIAA company
- Csquare (f/k/a Centersquare), a portfolio company of Brookfield, on the acquisition of 10 data centers across the United States and Canada with enterprise value of $1 billion
- EQT and its portfolio company, EdgeConneX, in connection with a substantial minority investment in EdgeConneX by Sixth Street
- Blackstone in its $10 billion acquisition of QTS Data Centers
- Stonepeak in the acquisition and $3 billion recapitalization of Cologix
- KKR in the formation of Global Technical Realty, a build-to-suit and roll-up acquisition data center platform in Europe, and in its subsequent investment of nearly $2 billion in GTR alongside Oak Hill Capital
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The KKR-led consortium in its full acquisition of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres for S$13.8 billion (~US$10.9 billion) – among Southeast Asia’s largest digital infrastructure transactions to date
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DigitalBridge on the formation of a joint venture with La Caisse (f/k/a CDPQ) for the joint acquisition of Yondr Group, named the 2025 IJGlobal Investor Digital Infrastructure Deal of the Year, Europe
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Macquarie Asset Management in an up to $5 billion partnership with Applied Digital to support high performance computing data center growth
- DigitalBridge in a strategic partnership with Allianz Global Investors, alongside La Caisse, relating to the acquisition of a minority stake in Yondr by Allianz Capital Partners GmbH, the asset management arm of Allianz
- KKR in its $50 billion strategic partnership with ECP to accelerate the development of data center and power generation and transmission infrastructure
- Pure Data Centres, an Oaktree portfolio company, in establishment of a 50:50 joint venture with SEGRO to create a a 56MW £1 billion data center in London’s Park Royal
- DigitalBridge Group and IFM Investors in their $11 billion acquisition of Switch, Inc.
- Town Lane in its joint venture with PowerHouse Data Centers to develop a 300 MW data center campus
- Blackstone in its $7 billion joint venture with Digital Realty to develop four hyperscale data center campuses across three metro areas on two continents, and related financing
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Brookfield Asset Management in its equity financing investment in 5C Group through its Infrastructure Structured Solutions strategy, alongside affiliated entities
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AirTrunk in its A$16 billion (~US$10.4 billion) (ex-Japan) multi-transaction refinancing, the largest-ever sustainability linked financing in the Asia Pacific & Japan region
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Multiple ABS offerings of Secured Data Center Revenue Notes by data enter operators such as Csquare (f/k/a Centersquare), DataBank, Flexential, QTS, Switch, TierPoint and Vantage Data Centers, totaling over $18 billion
- Blackstone in the financing of its A$24 billion (US$16.1 billion) acquisition, with CPP Investments, of AirTrunk, which was named Debt Financing Deal of the Year at the 2025 TMT Finance APAC Awards
- Switch in the $2.4 billion CMBS issuance of data centers located in Nevada, representing the largest green data center CMBS transaction and the second largest data center CMBS transaction in history
- Macquarie Asset Management in a $2.35 billion notes offering by its AI infrastructure partnership with Applied Digital through a subsidiary, with a portion being used to fund construction for two of the partnership’s new High-Performance Computing data centers in North Dakota
- CIM Group and Novva Data Centers in their $2 billion construction loan with JPMorgan Chase and Starwood Property Trust for the development of a 175 MW data center campus in West Jordan, Utah, among the largest-ever construction loans for a data center
- DigitalBridge Group and its portfolio company, Scala Data Centers, in connection with a $525 million structured financing round in Scala Data Centers
- DataBank in the first-ever securitization comprised solely of colocation data center revenue
- QTS Data Centers in numerous construction term loan facilities for the development of hyperscale build-to-suit data centers
- Vantage Data Centers in connection with the first-ever securitization of data center revenue
- Data center operator in connection with the first-ever data center US private placement transaction
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DigitalBridge in the formation and raising of its $11.7 billion third (and most recent) digital infra fund in 2025, as well as its preceding funds, including its $4.05 billion inaugural fund in 2019, which marked the first-ever fund solely dedicated to the digital infrastructure sector
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Apax in the establishment of Apax Digital Funds I and II
“Not
only are they incredibly good at what they do, they anticipate issues before
they even come up.”
– The Legal 500 U.S. (quoting a client)