Helsinki — May 23, 2023 — Kim Gunnelius, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Verne Global Finland, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high-intensity computing, has been named one of Capacity Magazine’s Power 100 in its fifth annual ranking of the telecommunications industry’s leading executives around the globe.

Gunnelius co-founded and became Chairman of Verne Global Finland – previously Ficolo – in 2011. In 2017, he took the position of Co-Founder and CCO, directing and spearheading the marketing and international sales for the company’s climate-neutral certified data center services. In his latest position as Managing Director, announced in March 2023, Gunnelius is playing a pivotal role in expanding the company’s Northern European data center platform, spanning Finland, Iceland and the UK, in order to meet growing demand for sustainable, high-performance data center services.

“I am honored to make Capacity Magazine’s Power 100 list in recognition of Verne Global’s pioneering work,” said Kim Gunnelius. “At Verne Global Finland, we have carved out a reputation for innovation, guiding the future of connectivity and sustainability while delivering high-performance, climate-neutral certified data center services that leave a lighter footprint on our planet.”

Gunnelius has a proven track record of identifying and managing opportunities globally, working with hyperscalers, specialist HPC users and enterprise, including some of the largest technology companies in the world. He also oversaw the company’s green certification initiative that helped Verne Global Finland achieve several industry firsts, including the first hyperscale-level, climate neutral certification for a Nordic data center. In addition, he oversaw the effort to reuse excess heat generated by the company’s Helsinki data center in a local district heating grid. 

Gunnelius is an Amazon best-selling published author, co-authoring “Greener Data” with other data center and telecom industry leaders, as well as a member of the Forbes Tech Council.

Launched in 2019, Capacity Media’s Power 100 is the ultimate list of the who’s who in the global carrier community that highlights data center and hyperscaler disruptors around the world. Capacity Magazine is an international specialist media publication for the global carrier industry.

ABOUT VERNE GLOBAL 

Verne Global delivers sustainable data center solutions that enable organisations to cost-effectively scale their digital infrastructure while reducing their environmental impact. The company’s four Nordic data centers – located in Iceland and Finland – are powered by predictably-priced, 100% renewable energy and are engineered for high-intensity workloads, while its hyper-connected central London data center is the optimal location for latency and connectivity-sensitive applications.

Verne Global’s on-site experts provide unparalleled support to ensure optimised operations for customers from all industries.

11^th January 2023 – Verne Global, provider of sustainable data centre solutions for high intensity computing, has today announced the expansion of its senior leadership team with three key appointments: Mike Allen as Chief Operating Officer; Kate Hennessy as Chief Financial Officer; and Hildegard van Zyl as General Counsel. 

As part of Digital 9 Infrastructure plc‘ s (D9) portfolio of critical digital infrastructure assets, Verne Global’s northern European data center platform has experienced significant growth, and now includes five data campuses in Iceland, London and Finland. These new senior leaders will help support future growth with the company seeing strong demand for more sustainable data center solutions. 

Mike Allen joins Verne Global as its new COO and will be responsible for optimising the organisation’s operational capabilities and implementing business strategies. Allen is a data center industry veteran, predominantly in the financial services sector. He has spent the last 20 years between Goldman Sachs and, more recently, JPMorgan Chase, where he was Global Head of Data Center Services.  

Kate Hennessy joins the company as its new CFO. She will manage the finances of Verne Global’s expanding data center portfolio, using her experience to draw out the synergies and economies of scale across the company’s different locations. Hennessy’s career spans telecoms and digital infrastructure, having spent the last 15 years working for Liquid Intelligent Technologies as both CFO and Chief of Mergers and Acquisitions, where she raised funding for and operated fibre networks and data centers across the African continent. 

Hildegard van Zyl joins as the company’s first General Counsel and will support Verne Global in its commitment to sustainability. Van Zyl brings a wealth of IT and legal tech experience, having worked for Amazon and later Atos, and having completed a range of multi-million dollar deals across the world, in both public and private sectors. She holds a BA in French and Philosophy and an LLB from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and is admitted to the New York Bar.  

“We are delighted that Mike, Kate and Hildegard join us at such at an exciting time, bringing with them considerable experience and diverse skills to the Verne Global team. They will play pivotal roles as we meet growing demand for sustainable data center solutions across our campuses in Iceland, London and Finland,” said Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne Global.   

About Verne Global 

Verne Global delivers sustainable data center solutions that enable organisations to cost-effectively scale their digital infrastructure while reducing their environmental impact. The company’s four Nordic data centers – located in Iceland and Finland – are all powered by predictably-priced, 100% renewable energy and are engineered for high intensity workloads, while its hyper-connected central London data center is the optimal location for latency and connectivity sensitive applications. 

Verne Global’s on-site experts provide unparalleled support to ensure optimised operations for customers from all industries. 

18 October 2022 – LONDON, UK – Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high intensity computing, has announced that Ficolo Oy, which operates three sustainable-powered data centers in Finland, will now operate under the Verne Global brand. Both companies are part of Triple Point’s Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9) portfolio of critical digital infrastructure assets, and together will help meet growing customer demand for sustainable data center services across multiple locations. 

Ficolo brings 23 MW of available data center capacity to the Verne Global platform, with the potential to expand to 90 MW across its three sites in Helsinki (‘the Air’), Pori (‘the Rock’) and Tampere (‘the Deck’). All three facilities are powered by 100 percent sustainable energy sources – including from Ficolo’s own solar power generation facility – and distribute surplus heat to district heating networks. The company offers colocation and connectivity services, in addition to a range of hybrid cloud services, with customers comprising both domestic and international organisations.

“Ficolo’s three campuses add significant capacity to the joint Verne Global data center platform; together – and with D9’s backing – we are in a strong position to satisfy growing demand for sustainable and predictably priced data center services, including from the hyperscalers,” said Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne Global. “In addition to being able to offer our customers the choice of four Nordic locations – all built with sustainability at their core – Ficolo’s expertise in hybrid cloud-based infrastructure services enables us to provide organisations with even more flexibility over how their applications are managed and supported.”

Verne Global’s data center platform also includes a 100 percent renewable-powered campus in Iceland, which will reach 40 MW of constructed capacity in 2023, with potential to expand to 100 MW or more. In addition, it operates a strategic data center hub in the City of London which connects to all major network and cloud providers, making it an optimal location for low latency workloads.

“Working together under one brand will benefit Ficolo’s many international and domestic customers as they can make use of the new platform’s broader portfolio of services offered in Iceland and London. And of course, Verne Global customers can now tap into Ficolo’s offering,” said Seppo Ihalainen, CEO and co-founder of Ficolo. 

The new expanded Verne Global team will focus on delivering industry-leading customer support. It is also rolling out consistent engineering design best practices to reduce the carbon footprint of customers and to optimise the performance of its operations across all five locations.

“We continue to drive convergence across the D9 portfolio investments and we will leverage the shared opportunities across our Nordic data center portfolio. Operating Ficolo under the Verne Global brand is one such step,” said Thor Johnsen, Head of Triple Point’s Digital 9 Infrastructure plc. “Offering a range of data center locations across the Nordics and in our low latency locations in metropolitan areas is driving a low-carbon, cost-optimised private cloud and performance computing solutions for our customers. Our holistic approach to the global digital infrastructure landscape is providing us unique opportunities for further investment and innovative end-to-end solutions for customers which are fully renewable and sustainable.” 

About Verne Global

Verne Global delivers sustainable data center solutions that enable organisations to cost-effectively scale their digital infrastructure while reducing their environmental impact. The company’s four Nordic data centers – located in Iceland and Finland – are all powered by predictably-priced, 100% renewable energy and are engineered for high intensity workloads, while its hyper-connected central London data center is the optimal location for latency and connectivity sensitive applications.

Verne Global’s on-site experts provide unparalleled support to ensure optimised operations for customers from all industries.

20 September 2022 – LONDON, UK – Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high intensity computing, has announced that Volta Data Centres, located in the City of London will begin marketing and operating under the Verne Global brand, delivering a data center platform that spans Iceland and the UK to meet both the connectivity and sustainability requirements of enterprise customers. 

Verne Global’s Northern European data center platform provides organisations with the flexibility to locate their workloads and applications between two fully-optimised locations.

Based in the heart of London, the Volta facility is an established and strategic data center hub, connecting to all major network and cloud providers. This makes it the ideal location for latency sensitive workloads that need to remain close to London’s business, finance and media hubs. 

Verne Global’s data center campus in Iceland is optimised for high intensity compute. Powered by 100 percent renewable energy and benefitting from year-round free air cooling, it offers sustainable, predictably and affordably priced data center solutions to organisations eager to reduce the carbon footprint and cost of their operations. In 2023, the campus will comprise 40 MW of constructed capacity, out of a possible 100 MW on this initial site.  

“With two complementary, best-in-class data centers, we can now offer enterprises more choice over where to locate their applications,” said Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne Global. “ Our experience suggests that less than ten percent of workloads need to be in metropolitan areas, the rest can be located anywhere in the world. Yet historically, many organisations place all their applications in one spot, often in locations with severe space and power constraints, or inappropriate cost profiles. We help organisations take a fresh approach, splitting their applications between locations in order to optimise performance, reduce costs, and limit their impact on the environment.”

The new expanded Verne Global team will focus on delivering consistent, industry-leading support and is introducing plans to implement engineering design best practices to optimise the performance and minimise the environmental impact of its two locations. James Chenery, Verne Global’s Sales Director, Finance, will assume the role of Head of London to lead all activities at the London facility. 

Verne Global and Volta are both part of Triple Point’s Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9) portfolio of critical digital infrastructure assets that focus on creating a more resilient, sustainable, inclusive and accessible internet. 

Thor Johnsen, Head of Triple Point’s Digital 9 Infrastructure plc, commented: “This is another great example of driving convergence value across our portfolio. Verne Global’s data center assets represent some of the cleanest, lowest carbon footprint data centers, globally. Volta is one of central London’s best connected data centers with customers that continue to seek low latency access in key centralised locations. We are excited with the long-term opportunities across existing enterprise customers to optimise data center utilisation across the broader platform, balancing the low latency metro access of Volta with the predictable power costs and sustainability benefits of Verne Global.”

About Verne Global

Verne Global delivers sustainable data center solutions that enable organisations to cost-effectively scale their digital infrastructure while reducing their environmental impact. The company’s flagship Icelandic data center campus is powered by predictably-priced, 100% renewable energy and is engineered for high intensity workloads, while its hyper-connected central London data center is the optimal location for latency and connectivity sensitive applications. Verne Global’s on-site experts provide unparalleled support to ensure optimised operations for customers from all industries.

30 May, 2022 – LONDON & REYKJAVIK – Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high intensity computing, and Landsvirkjun, the national power company of Iceland, today announced a collaboration which will see Verne Global trial and deploy hydrogen fuel cells to produce reliable and sustainable back-up power for its Icelandic data center campus. The two companies will work together to enable the transition to green hydrogen power produced with Iceland’s renewable energy, taking Verne Global even further with its industry-leading sustainability position. This data center project is the first of its kind in Iceland.

Verne Global’s 40 acre data center campus was designed from the ground up to provide highly specialist data center services for organisations running high intensity compute workloads, including AI, machine learning, high performance computing (HPC) and supercomputing. Iceland’s stable, 100 percent renewable-powered energy grid ensures Verne Global can provide these customers with long-term price visibility, while the local climate supports free cooling 365 days a year. Through this trial project, in the unlikely event of disruption to its primary power supply, Verne Global will use renewable hydrogen-powered generation to maintain its data center operations.

“We’re really looking forward to working with Verne Global on this project and helping them further capitalise on Iceland’s inimitable ability to provide green energy,” said Hörður Arnarson, CEO, Landsvirkjun. “We’re proud to undertake this pioneering project with an industry leader, which will in turn provide us with key insights into leveraging hydrogen power across Iceland and beyond.”

Icelandic New Energy, which has more than two decades’ worth of experience in hydrogen energy transition in Iceland, will oversee the project and conduct a study, which will serve to offer guidance to the wider industry on the viability of hydrogen fuel cell back-up for data centers.

“We’re constantly searching for ways to improve our already market-leading sustainability credentials, so we jumped at the opportunity to work with Landsvirkjun and Icelandic New Energy to turn even our back-up data center power ‘green’,” said Dominic Ward, CEO at Verne Global.

About Verne Global

Verne Global delivers data center solutions for high intensity computing, engineered for optimal high performance compute and built upon 100% renewable energy. Our clean grid and stable climate cuts costs and energy usage, and our expert team provides on-site, around-the-clock support to maximise performance and flexibility for customer workloads.

Founded in 2012, our Icelandic data center campus powers some of the world’s most innovative and demanding industries, including financial services, earth sciences, life sciences, engineering, scientific research and AI.

In September 2021, Digital 9 Infrastructure, Plc (“D9”, the “Company” or, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) announced that it had completed the acquisition of Verne Holdings Limited (trading as Verne Global, “Verne Global“), a 100% renewable energy powered data centre platform in Iceland, operating on a former NATO site near Keflavik. The Company is pleased to announce that it has agreed to invest a further $93 million in Verne Global over the next 12 months to fund the expansion of capacity by a further 20.7 MW.  

Key highlights:

• This investment includes anticipated site expansion opportunities identified at the time of the acquisition of Verne Global and accelerated to meet higher than expected customer demand. The expansion includes the completion of a new 8.2MW data hall and a further 12.5MW of repurposed capacity for additional enterprise customer demand. 
• This additional capital expenditure will result in a total constructed capacity at the Keflavik site of approximately 40 MW out of a possible 100 MW at this initial site.
• The data hall currently under construction is anticipated to start generating revenue in Q3 2022, with the new developments expected to be completed and start ramping up in Q1 2023.
• Verne Global is one of the leading Nordic data centre platforms, delivering sustainable data centre solutions in a geographically optimal environment, with 100% of power delivered from local renewable sources (hydroelectric and geothermal) and delivering exceptional energy efficiency by making use of year-round ambient low temperatures for cooling.
• Verne Global is the partner of choice for leading global HPC players, supercomputing and enterprise customers which are seeking industry leading reliability and security, low cost and exceptional low carbon credentials.

D9’s investment pipeline

The Investment Manager is progressing a pipeline of investment opportunities with an aggregate value of approximately £1.9 billion and anticipates updating the market on further investment activity in the near term.

Commenting on the Verne Global investment, Thor Johnsen, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point, said:

“Verne Global’s data centre assets represent some of the cleanest, lowest carbon footprint data centres, globally. This follow-on investment to fund the expansion of the Verne facility, driven by capacity demand from both new and existing customers, will enable these customers to shift further toward their decarbonisation goals while addressing their growing digital needs. The investment also demonstrates our ongoing ability to deliver attractive and accretive contracted cash flow through our investment platform, a leading Nordic data centre business.”

NOTES:

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc is an investment trust which invests in a range of digital infrastructure assets which help to deliver, inter alia, a reliable, functioning internet.

The Company’s portfolio will comprise scalable platforms and technologies including (but not limited to) subsea fibre, data centres, terrestrial fibre, tower infrastructure and small cell networks (including 5G).

With its IPO in March 2021, to date, D9 has raised total equity of £750 million, investing the net proceeds into data centres and fibre networks:

• Aqua Comms, a leading owner and operator of 20,000km of the most modern subsea fibre systems – the backbone of the internet – with a customer base comprising the hyperscalers and global carriers (April 2021);
• EMIC-1, a partnership with a hyperscaler on a 10,000km fibre system from Europe to India (July 2021);
• Verne Global, one of the leading Nordic data centre platforms, delivering high intensity computing solutions to its enterprise customers in a geographically optimal environment, powered by 100% renewable power – one of the most efficient data centres in Europe (September 2021);
• SeaEdge UK1, a data centre and the UK’s only landing station for the North Sea Connect subsea cable, part of the North Atlantic Loop subsea network, which includes D9’s AEC-1 and AEC-2 cables, improving connectivity between the UK, Scandinavia and North America (December 2021)

The Investment Manager is Triple Point Investment Management LLP (“Triple Point”) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, with extensive experience in asset and project finance, portfolio management and structured investments. The Investment Manager’s digital infrastructure team has a proven track record of over US$3 billion of infrastructure investments and, in addition, benefits from a panel of digital infrastructure industry experts with deep knowledge, relationships and involvement in a combined US$250 billion of digital infrastructure transactions.

The Company is focused on the provision of Digital Infrastructure integrated with green and cleaner power in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.

The Company’s Ordinary Shares were admitted to trading on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange on 31 March 2021.

For more information, please visit www.d9infrastructure.com.

15^th November 2021 – Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high intensity computing, recently acquired by Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9), today announced that it is expanding its 40-acre data center campus by a further 10MW of constructed power capacity. The expansion is backed by D9, the investment trust that focuses on sustainable digital infrastructure assets, which will fund the $50m development of new enterprise-class data center space.

Ideally located with access to abundant, low-cost renewable energy and a highly reliable national electrical grid, the Icelandic data center company continues to attract a range of enterprise customers as demand for high intensity compute sees sustained growth across industries. As more companies look to decarbonise their digital infrastructure by powering intensive applications such as artificial intelligence, mathematical modelling and predictive analytics with cleaner, greener energy, Verne Global is expanding now to meet contracted demand. The data center company’s best-in-class onsite technical and operations team will continue to use its specialised expertise to work around the clock to support and optimise the high density environments and workloads it houses.

“We’re seeing sector after sector looking to move into high performance analytics environments and it’s exciting to scale our campus again alongside new and existing customers to meet that need,” said Dominic Ward, CEO at Verne Global. “It’s great to also take this first step into the future as part of the D9 Infrastructure platform, and we are all eagerly looking forward to what comes next.”

“We are proud to support Verne Global and play a part in bringing its vision for the future into reality,” said Thor Johnsen, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point, D9’s investment manager. “Powered by Iceland’s abundant green power, Verne Global’s expanded data center will be even better placed to provide resilient digital infrastructure that offers a true reduction in carbon emissions for its customers alongside long-term economic and sustainable stability.”

As part of this expansion, Verne Global is partnering with Integra Mission Critical, the modular data center solutions provider, to optimise its delivery of sustainable high intensity compute at scale while fitting out the new data center space. Utilising Integra’s solution-driven engineering expertise to implement modular data center infrastructure will allow Verne Global to increase sustainability measures in line with its core mission, while promoting scalability and safety, and decreasing cost.

“Verne Global’s facility has been built from the ground up for highly specialist data center services that are sustainable, scalable and bespoke,” said John Kolar, Principal at Integra Mission Critical. “These mutual principles make our companies a natural fit and we’re so excited to be teaming up and putting our decades of experience in solution-driven engineering to good use to provide a quality turnkey infrastructure solution for the new space.”

About Verne Global

Verne Global delivers data center solutions for high intensity computing, engineered for optimal high performance compute and built upon 100% renewable energy. Our clean grid and stable climate cuts costs and energy usage, and our expert team provides on-site, around-the-clock support to maximise performance and flexibility for customer workloads.

Founded in 2012, our Icelandic data center campus powers some of the world’s most innovative and demanding industries, including financial services, earth sciences, life sciences, engineering, scientific research and AI.

About Integra Mission Critical

Integra Mission Critical delivers modular mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) solutions for the mission critical sector. With in-house manufacturing facilities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, Integra Mission Critical has a global reach with a local focus. Our solutions-driven engineering enables us to meet each customer’s specific needs across the globe, whether that be specialised cooling for a specific climate, or sustainable solutions for backup power generation.

Integra Mission Critical leverages innovative designs and an integrated approach and combines them with our relentless passion to mitigate risk, compress the schedule, reduce costs, and close the gap between capex and revenue generation.

Founded in 2014, with a focus on cooling solutions, Integra Mission Critical has since expanded into electrical solutions (2017), ranging from electrical skids to modular electrical rooms, to complete modular data centers. Our North America headquarters are in Dallas, Texas with our European headquarters in London, England. 

London, UK, 6 September 2021 – Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high intensity computing (registered as Verne Holdings Limited), today announced that it has been acquired by Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9), the newly established investment trust that invests in a range of digital infrastructure assets which deliver a reliable, functioning internet, in a deal valued at approximately £231 million in cash.

UK-based D9 is focused on providing resilient digital infrastructures that are integrated with green and cleaner power in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 9, to  “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.” The acquisition of Verne Global, which operates a 100 percent renewable powered data center campus based in Iceland, reaffirms this strategy and, together with D9’s recent subsea investment in Aqua Comms, accelerates the investment trust’s ambition to decarbonise digital infrastructure by increasing access to data centres in areas where there are abundant supplies of clean energy.

Verne Global’s 40 acre data center campus has been designed from the ground up to provide highly specialist data center services for organisations running high intensity compute workloads, including AI, machine learning, high performance computing (HPC) and supercomputing. Iceland’s stable energy grid ensures Verne Global can provide these customers with long-term price visibility, while the local climate supports free cooling 365 days a year. Its services are backed by a highly expert team of data center engineers, which offers round-the-clock support from Verne Global’s Keflavik campus. 

Dominic Ward, CEO of Verne Global, said:

“We are absolutely delighted to become part of the Digital 9 Infrastructure platform. Its mission to support and develop highly-resilient digital infrastructures that fuel innovation, but are also sustainable and inclusive, resonates tremendously with Verne Global’s own business objectives. What Verne Global has achieved over the last decade is a fantastic accomplishment and is a great acknowledgement of the exceptional team that we have. We are hugely grateful for the support that we have had from our prior shareholders (Wellcome Trust, Stefnir, Novator Partners, and General Catalyst Partners) to this point. As we look forward, we are now hugely excited to be working with D9 and believe that we have the perfect partner to help power our future.“

Commenting on the Verne Global transaction, Thor Johnsen, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point, D9’s Investment Manager, said:

“Data centers form a key part of the digital infrastructure backbone.  Verne Global’s existing Icelandic based data center assets represent some of the cleanest, lowest carbon footprint data centres, globally. This is another key step to support decarbonising the data center industry.  For society to meet key decarbonisation goals, we need to look for ways to shift energy consumptive activities to areas of surplus renewable energy. The digital infrastructure industry has an increasing energy footprint, particularly data centres, which need to become more energy efficient and green. However, as an industry we should not expect to just rely on carbon offsets in markets which are already struggling to meet carbon targets, but we need to attract data centre demand to areas where there are robust sources of renewable power. 

 We are thrilled to add the Verne Global platform to the growing D9 portfolio. Together with the D9 subsea investment in Aqua Comms, we are pursuing further fibre network opportunities to improve connectivity into the Nordics, enabling data center users reliable and low cost access to the vast renewable and low cost energy resources of Iceland and the Nordics.”

Birgir Már Ragnarsson, Managing Partner at Novator Partners LLP, one of the original investors in Verne Global, said:

“When we founded Verne Global in 2007 with our friends at General Catalyst, we had the ambitious goal of building the first green data center in the world that would serve the global enterprise market.  We saw Iceland as the best place for high intensity compute, using 100 percent renewable energy, free cooling, long term energy contracts and a tech savvy, highly educated workforce.  

“Now close to 15 years later, we are super proud to say that we achieved our goal thanks to the brilliant team at Verne Global and our co-investors from the Welcome Trust and Stefnir. Verne Global is already a clear winner as a green sustainable data center serving global customers, and now has the opportunity to grow even further under new ownership.  We congratulate D9 with their acquisition and look forward to following Verne Global’s future.”

ENDS

About Digital 9 Infrastructure plc:

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc is a newly established, externally managed investment trust which invests in a range of digital infrastructure assets which deliver a reliable, functioning internet.

“Digital infrastructure” refers to the critical infrastructure required for the internet to operate and, essentially, refers to everything from fibre networks that connect continents, businesses and homes (the very “backbone” of the internet), to the data centres that organisations use to house their critical networks of computer and storage resources, and to the towers and small cells that carry data traffic wirelessly to the end user.

The Company is focused on the provision of Digital Infrastructure integrated with green and cleaner power in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.

The Company’s portfolio will comprise future proofed, non-legacy, scalable platforms and technologies including (but not limited to) subsea fibre, data centres, terrestrial fibre, tower infrastructure and small cell networks (including 5G).

The Investment Manager is Triple Point Investment Management LLP (“Triple Point“) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, with extensive experience in asset and project finance, portfolio management and structured investments. The Investment Manager’s digital infrastructure team has a proven track record of over US$2 billion of infrastructure investments and, in addition, benefits from a panel of digital infrastructure industry experts with deep knowledge, relationships and involvement in a combined US$250 billion of digital infrastructure transactions.

The Company’s Ordinary Shares were admitted to trading on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange on 31 March 2021.

For more information, please visit www.d9infrastructure.com.

About Verne Global

Verne Global delivers data center solutions for high intensity computing, engineered for optimal high performance compute and built upon 100% renewable energy. Our clean grid and stable climate cuts costs and energy usage, and our expert team provides on-site, around-the-clock support to maximise performance and flexibility for customer workloads.

Founded in 2012, our Icelandic data center campus powers some of the world’s most innovative and demanding industries, including financial services, earth sciences, life sciences, engineering, scientific research and AI.

Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high intensity computing, today announced that Wirth Research, an engineering, design technology and advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) consultancy, has relocated its supercomputer to Verne Global’s data center campus in Iceland. The move enables Wirth Research to analyse, optimise and verify the performance of designs for its industry customers with zero carbon cost.

With its roots in motorsports, Wirth Research was founded by Nick Wirth, former Simtek Grand Prix owner and Benetton F1 chief designer. Since 2003, the company has pioneered the use of advanced virtual engineering technologies that reduce the need for costly physical tests and the wasteful manufacture of prototypes. Wirth Research uses high resolution CFD analyses to design and develop innovative airflow solutions for a wide variety of sectors and uses. These include identifying key airflow mechanisms that minimise the airborne transport of viruses, like Covid, in public spaces, as well as controlling and targeting airflow to make supermarket refrigeration more efficient and city streets more comfortable for pedestrians through wind engineering of tall buildings.  

CFD is incredibly power-intensive and requires high intensity computing environments. With its in-house high performance computing (HPC) servers nearing end-of-life, Wirth Research sought to improve the speed, performance and reliability of its compute-intensive applications, while at the same time, increasing efficiency and reducing its energy footprint. After extensive consideration, Wirth Research chose to colocate its new Dell EMC PowerEdge servers powered by AMD Epyc CPUs and ​Nvidia Tesla T4 GPUs at Verne Global’s Icelandic campus due to its first-in-class performance and on-site HPC support. Crucially, Verne Global also offers a sustainable alternative to fossil-fuelled compute power – 100% renewable hydro-electric and geothermal energy, with free cooling from Iceland’s year-round lower temperatures. 

Previously, Wirth Research’s headquarters were tethered to where its CFD supercomputer was located, on a site with substantial energy costs and cooling requirements. By moving its high performance compute to Verne Global, and replacing its existing hardware with new hyper-efficient AMD Epyc 2 processors, Wirth Research’s costs were reduced so significantly that the savings in energy usage easily justified the investment in upgraded hardware. As well, Wirth Research was able to move its headquarters to a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly office, more in line with its core values. 

“At Wirth Research, the work we do is sustainability work, helping our clients implement energy-saving carbon reduction systems that aren’t just planet-friendly, but also offer compelling returns on investment,” said Nick Wirth, President and Technical Director, Wirth Research. “Verne Global’s renewably powered data center – optimised for HPC and supported by a skilled team of engineers – is the ideal place to host our high intensity compute.”

“Wirth Research’s advanced engineering technologies can revolutionise industries, and Verne Global is thrilled to be a part of delivering that innovation at zero carbon cost,” said Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne Global. “Verne Global was built from the ground up with sustainability, scalability and security front-of-mind, and we look forward to supporting Wirth Research’s future growth.”  

Verne Global, provider of sustainable data center solutions for high performance computing (HPC), and Endor, the data center infrastructure experts, today announced they have struck a formal co-operation agreement to provide organisations with a turnkey solution for relocating and setting up compute and managing data center operations at Verne Global’s campus in Iceland.

Endor – which operates under the umbrella of Sýn, the company formed after the merger of Vodafone Iceland and 365 broadcast media – offers complete strategic IT consulting and services, from tailored IT solutions to infrastructure investments. Endor and Verne Global have a successful history of working together to provide customers with managed IT services, specialising in high density compute. The new agreement formalises this collaboration, making it simple for enterprises to strategically locate their IT infrastructure in Verne Global’s 100 percent renewably-powered data center campus in Iceland, while relying on Endor to manage the deployment process as well as day-to-day operations.

The partnership will see Endor handle all the logistics of locating high density compute offshore in Verne Global’s Icelandic data center, including transportation of hardware and management of VAT processes. Endor will also offer a range of managed services to organisations with equipment at the Verne Global campus, ensuring that their operations are always working optimally.

“Sustainability is an issue that is definitely top of mind for our customers,” said Gunnar Gudjonsson, CEO, Endor. “By combining our managed services with Verne Global’s cutting edge, sustainable hosting environment, we really can offer customers the whole package. We have been working with Verne Global ever since Endor’s foundation in 2015 and are delighted now to formalise the partnership to deliver our differentiated, sustainable solutions.”

“This partnership makes it simpler and more cost-effective than ever to ‘offshore’ IT operations and prioritise sustainability,” said Alex Picchietti, Senior Director, Strategic Alliances at Verne Global. “Endor’s expertise in managing customers’ IT services is renowned, which makes them an ideal partner for us at Verne Global.”