Macquarie Capital Invests in Singapore’s Zerra DC to Back Its 2 GW APAC Expansion

Macquarie Capital, the corporate advisory and principal investment arm of Australia’s financial heavyweight Macquarie Group, has invested in Singapore-headquartered data centre developer Zerra DC. The capital injection will back Zerra’s multi-gigawatt expansion across Australia, Japan and India as rising demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing drives investment in large-scale digital infrastructure across the Asia-Pacific region.

While the financial terms were not disclosed, Zerra’s founding investor, global real assets investment and management firm AGP, will retain its majority shareholding in the company, which has a development pipeline exceeding 2 GW of planned IT capacity across the three markets.

The investment deepens an existing infrastructure relationship between Macquarie Capital and Zerra, which is developing hyperscale data centre campuses for global cloud providers and generative AI companies. The funding will support Zerra’s regional development pipeline, although the companies have not disclosed the specific amount committed, the exact equity stake acquired or a timetable for deploying the capital.

Building on an Australian Partnership

The transaction follows an existing collaboration at Western Downs Digital Park in Queensland, where Zerra is developing a hyperscale campus and will eventually operate the facility. Macquarie Capital is participating as a consortium partner and acting as a project and financial advisor.

Western Downs is among Australia’s largest proposed digital infrastructure developments, boasting up to 1.44GW of planned IT capacity across four development stages.

The project recently secured a crucial long-term lease commitment from Anthropic, the US-based AI behemoth behind the Claude family of AI models. The lease provides a significant commercial anchor for the development, although the project remains subject to planning and other delivery requirements.

Beyond Queensland, Zerra’s Australian pipeline includes a proposed campus at Campbellfield in Melbourne, with approximately 336 MW of power capacity planned across six development stages.

Expanding the Regional Pipeline

Outside Australia, the developer’s expansion extends into Japan, where the company is pursuing a 130 MW IT capacity development in Inzai, near Tokyo, with design and permitting currently underway. Meanwhile, its Indian pipeline includes a proposed 240 MW data centre campus on a 29-acre site in Navi Mumbai, where it has received initial development consents.

These projects are at different stages of development, and the total pipeline exceeding 2 GW represents planned capacity instead of operational infrastructure. Their eventual scale and delivery will depend on planning approvals, power availability, financing, customer commitments, and construction milestones.

Kristian Steffensen, co-founder and executive director of Zerra, said the investment would help the company strengthen its development and operating capabilities across the three target markets.

The partnership brings together Zerra’s capabilities in site development, energy procurement, construction and operations with Macquarie Capital’s experience in financing and developing infrastructure assets.

Ivan Varughese, head of Macquarie Capital Infrastructure Principal, Asia-Pacific, said the expansion of AI and cloud services was increasing demand for larger data centre campuses, with successful projects requiring co-ordination between developers, customers, electricity providers and local communities.

Macquarie Deepens Its Digital Infra Investments

The Zerra transaction is Macquarie Capital Principal Investment’s fifth since April and its 12th digital infrastructure investment overall, indicating the scale of its activity in a sector attracting capital from infrastructure funds and institutional investors.

Macquarie Capital’s infrastructure principal business invests in early-stage companies and projects across digital infrastructure, providing capital and development expertise before assets reach full operational maturity.

Its previous investments include Prime Data Centres, which expanded from a single US facility into a platform with more than 1.3 GW of secured power across 14 campuses. Macquarie Capital is also a lead investor in KelvinX, a pan-European data centre platform.

Zerra said its proposed campuses across Australia, Japan and India incorporate air-cooled systems to reduce dependence on water-intensive evaporative cooling, alongside location-specific measures such as recycled water and rainwater collection.

AGP, which established Zerra and remains its controlling shareholder, has a broader portfolio spanning renewable energy, digital infrastructure and real estate. Founded in 2018, the Singapore-based investment manager reported more than 3.1 GW of secured data centre capacity and 11.8 GW of clean energy assets operating or under development globally.

Financial services firm Grant Samuel advised Zerra on the Macquarie transaction.

The investment gives Zerra additional backing to advance its multigigawatt pipeline, while extending Macquarie Capital’s exposure to AI-driven data centre development. The commercial test moving forward will be how quickly Zerra can convert planned capacity into operational campuses backed by long-term customer commitments.