Singapore data center operator DayOne (DODC.US) applies for U.S. listing, valuation may aim for $20 billion.

DayOne Data Centers, a Singapore-headquartered data center operator, filed an F-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday to conduct an initial public offering of American Depositary Shares (ADS) on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker symbol "DODC." DayOne plans to use the IPO proceeds to develop and build new data center projects, as well as for working capital and other general corporate purposes. DayOne has not yet disclosed the size of the offering, though it was previously reported that the company plans to raise up to $5 billion at a potential valuation of as much as $20 billion. DayOne develops and operates data centers for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) customers, providing services such as colocation space, power, cooling and network connectivity, primarily through long-term contracts. According to the company's filing, DayOne operates across Asia-Pacific and Europe, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Finland and Spain. Meanwhile, DayOne's filing shows its revenue has surged on strong demand driven by the AI boom. Data showed that for the six months ended June 30, the company's revenue was $512 million, compared with $151.5 million in the same period a year earlier. But its losses also widened, from $12.6 million a year earlier to $77.2 million. DayOne is among a batch of data center companies planning IPOs as soon as this year. According to people familiar with the matter, other companies planning listings include Switch Inc., which is seeking a valuation (including debt) of nearly $50 billion, and London-based Nscale, which could raise up to $3 billion. DayOne is not relying on a forward-looking story to raise funds. In June this year, DayOne completed a $4.5 billion Series C funding round led by its largest shareholders Coatue Management and Hillhouse, with new investors Achi Capital Partners and the Indonesian Investment Authority also participating. Other backers include SoftBank Vision Fund and Citadel founder Ken Griffin. Since its founding in 2022, it has locked in more than 1.5 GW of capacity bookings across Asia-Pacific and Europe, and has made clear its intention to build "AI-ready" data center campuses for hyperscale cloud providers and enterprise customers. As such, this IPO is essentially about bringing the "power + land + colocation + AI compute hosting capability" already validated by private capital into the world's largest public equity capital market for repricing, during the strongest capital expenditure cycle of the AI boom. It is worth noting that DayOne's IPO filing comes as soaring U.S. bond yields and elevated interest rates are casting a shadow over the outlook for the autumn IPO market and prompting several large IPOs to be postponed. Data centers are also coming under scrutiny for their heavy consumption of electricity, water and land, with local communities beginning to worry about their impact on power grids, electricity bills and local resources. Despite the challenging market environment, DayOne is still expected to attract capital on the back of persistently strong investor demand for AI infrastructure.