Dive Brief:
- Schneider Electric and data center design and construction company Compass Datacenters will expand their existing partnership in a $3 billion five-year agreement to jointly manufacture prefabricated IT modular data centers.
- The two companies initially formed a partnership in July to integrate their data center supply chains, as well as announced the construction of a new Red Oak, Texas, facility to build centers for Compass. The Red Oak site will now be used to support the added manufacturing capacity under the expanded partnership.
- The collaboration aims to expedite delivery of standardized centers and lower production costs to match rising data center demand as the AI market grows, Schneider Electric stated in a press release.
Dive Insight:
Since the initial agreement between the companies, France-based Schneider Electric has manufactured and delivered about 150 modular data center solutions to Compass from its West Chester, Ohio, plant.
The new 110,000-square-foot integration facility, adjacent to Compass’ existing Red Oak, Texas campus, will create over 100 jobs in the area and is set to open in June 2024. The plant is expected to produce 240 power centers in 2025 with a maximum capacity of over 400 power centers per year, a Schneider Electric spokeperson said in an email.
"The extension of our agreement to continue innovating will address future demands to serve customers in industries ranging from cloud and service providers to semiconductors and EV's, healthcare and telecommunication, among others,” Aamir Paul, president of Schneider Electric North America, said in a statement.
Schneider has been ramping up production in recent years since committing to a $300 million investment in U.S. manufacturing in 2020. The digital automation company announced its systems revenues, which includes data center and infrastructure projects, were up 23% in Q3 this year, according to Schneider.
Schneider also opened up its fourth and largest U.S. electrical equipment factory in El Paso, Texas, in September.
Texas has seen a growth in technology investments of late. Last week, Germany-based Siemens committed to building a $150 million electrical equipment manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Texas.
Compass Datacenters has operations in nine U.S. markets as well as in Canada and Europe. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it also has a three-facility data center in Allen, just north of the metroplex.
In June, the company announced it was sold to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in a deal valued at more than $5 billion, Reuters first reported.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include the expected date of the Texas facility's opening.
