Writing | He Jipai
Huang Wei, the data giant at the helm, boarded the fast train.
On the evening of November 19th, Wanguo Data disclosed that its net income from July to September was 2.97 billion yuan, an increase of 17.7%, and its profit (adjusted EBITDA) was 1.3 billion yuan.
The growth rate is quite significant, "said Chairman and CEO Huang Wei, stating that domestic business delivery has accelerated and international business has performed strongly.
This third-party data center operator is headquartered in Shanghai. At present, it is aggressively expanding overseas, conquering cities and territories from Southeast Asia to Japan, investing in new projects, and expanding its asset size to over 80 billion yuan.
At the end of October, Wanguo Data International announced that it had received an additional $1 billion in equity financing, along with an earlier $672 million, bringing the total amount of the two rounds of financing to $1.672 billion, approximately RMB 12 billion.
Huang Wei, who has received supplies, is leading the world to sit at the global table.
Digesting inventory
Huang Wei's domestic business has reached a turning point.
In the latest quarter, Wanguo's domestic data centers added over 25000 square meters of usable area, all of which came from first tier markets. The main reason is the demand for AI, "said Huang Wei.
Accelerated delivery of customer orders and increased data center utilization to 73.6%.
From July to September, its net revenue in the Chinese market was 2.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%.
At present, the strategy implemented by Wanguo in China is to selectively acquire new orders while delivering the contracted and unpaid area.
Huang Wei mentioned that about half of the total migration volume is new orders, and the other half is the digestion of backlog orders.
To put it bluntly, the business done by Wanguo Data is a bit like that of a second landlord. They build data center facilities, rent them out to end customers, store and calculate data, and provide hosting and management services for customers.
Its customers are mainly cloud service providers, large Internet enterprises, financial institutions, etc. In the past few years, some large factories have set more aggressive goals, and a large number of orders need to be digested later.
As a result, Huang Wei adjusted his domestic market strategy, shifting from attack to defense and prioritizing the task of digesting inventory.
Last year, Wanguo had 7 data centers put into operation, located in Beijing, Langfang, Shenzhen and other places. In 2020 and 2021, this number was 15 and 26 respectively.
Fortunately, with the arrival of the AI wave, the demand for computing power and data has surged, shifting from oversupply to supply shortage, and in some regions, it is even difficult to find a "cabinet".
A large demand for AI applications is concentrated in first and second tier cities, where location resources are scarce and policies for new construction and expansion are becoming stricter, which happens to be the advantage of Wanguo.
Its core IDC resources are mainly located in core cities and their surrounding areas, forming a contiguous cluster layout that can be used for large-scale deployment of AI computing power.
The total contracted area of Wanguo in China increased by about 20000 square meters from July to September, mainly contributed by data centers located in Beijing and Langfang.
In the future, with the continuous increase of AI inference applications, the demand for customers to deploy data centers in first tier cities will be further released, "the official said.
Advancing into ASEAN
Key domestic focus is on clearing inventory, while overseas, Huang Wei leads his team to conquer new territories.
His main focus is on a crucial battlefield: Southeast Asia.
Huang Wei formulated a strategy called SIJORI (Singapore Johor, Malaysia Batam, Indonesia), connecting the three regions of "Singapore, Malaysia, and India", occupying strategic locations, and deploying data centers.
He chose Johor, Malaysia and Batam, Indonesia for key layout, and added a net contracted area of 16000 square meters to the two venues in three months.
As of now, it has received orders for 431MW capacity in the region.
During this period, Huang Wei has signed an order with a top global technology company for the NDP park in Batam, Indonesia.
This project is the first data center in Asia designed specifically for advanced artificial intelligence technology, and is scheduled to be delivered and put into use within 18 months.
Nowadays, global giants are competing to lay out data centers in Southeast Asia, and Wanguo, which has taken the market early, is constantly deepening its footsteps.
In early November, Wanguo officially entered the Thai market.
It has signed a land acquisition agreement to develop a data center park with a total IT capacity of approximately 120MW in Chumphon Province, southeastern Bangkok.
In the past few months, global tech giants have announced large-scale investment plans in Thailand. During the conference call, Huang Wei mentioned that Thailand is the next major opportunity in the Southeast Asian market.
At the same time, two large data center projects were approved for construction in the Chunwuli Prefecture area, one from Wanguo and the other from a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
From July to September, Huang Wei's net income from overseas has reached 360 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 636%. As of the end of September, the total area of signed and pre signed international business increased by 256% year-on-year.
From point to surface
Overseas business has been thriving all the way.
In a previous interview with 21CRBR, Huang Wei mentioned that the resource layout in Southeast Asia may achieve an IT capacity of 1000MW in the next few years.
His ambition is not limited to this, but aims to establish a core base that radiates the data center market in ASEAN and even throughout Asia from point to area.
In early April, Wanguo announced its entry into the Japanese market to further expand its territory.
It will invest in building a data center park in Tokyo with Gaw Capital, covering a total area of over 10000 square meters and an estimated IT capacity of 40MW.
The project site is less than 30 kilometers away from the center of Tokyo and is planned to be put into operation by the end of 2026, making it the largest data center cluster in the city where it is located.
Wanguo Data stated that it has obtained preliminary intention orders from some customers.
Huang Wei stated that international business has now covered the three most important markets in the Asia Pacific region (excluding mainland China): Hong Kong, Southeast Asia with SIJORI as the core, and the Japanese market.
Attack everywhere, acquire land to build projects, Huang Wei needs money.
Its international business is mainly undertaken by GDS International (GDSI). It was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Singapore, responsible for data center assets and operations outside of mainland China.
The assets held by this company include approximately 480 megawatts of data center capacity that has been put into use and is under construction, as well as an additional 590 megawatts of capacity for future development.
To expand its international business, following a Series A financing of 672 million US dollars, Wanguo accelerated the introduction of new investors and completed a Series B financing of 1 billion US dollars. The interval between two rounds of financing is only 7 months.
A $1 billion equity financing will support our ambitious international expansion plan, "said Huang Wei.
It is reported that GDSI will consider splitting and conducting a separate IPO.
Looking ahead to the whole year, Wanguo will increase its capital expenditure guidance to 11 billion yuan, including 3 billion yuan for its China business and 8 billion yuan for its international business, reflecting an accelerated expansion speed.
Running around investing in and building projects, Huang Wei's goal is to 'recreate a world of data'.