People familiar with the matter said that Bain Capital-backed Bridge Data Centres is in talks with multiple banks to more than double its existing loan size to about $6.6 billion, in what could become one of the largest transactions in Asia's data center sector.
The move is a continuation of a previous financing plan. The company secured an initial $2.8 billion loan last year for its Malaysia operations, with plans to subsequently increase the facility to at least $5 billion.
People familiar with the matter, who declined to be named, said the expanded financing could be brought to market as early as November.
The people also said that a planned Thailand data center loan of up to $6 billion has stalled. The timing of the stall roughly coincides with Thailand's move last month to halt 49 data center projects over energy consumption concerns.
A spokesperson for Bridge said: "In line with company policy, we do not comment on unverified information or market speculation."
Driven by demand growth fueled by the artificial intelligence boom, data center operators have been borrowing heavily to expand.
Moody's Ratings expects at least $3 trillion to be invested in data center-related areas over the next five years, with most of the funding to be financed through debt.
However, there are already signs that global investors are starting to refuse to keep investing when they believe valuations are in bubble territory.
Banks are also becoming more cautious about their exposure to the sector as they approach lending limits.
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