CIM Group & Novva Data Centers Secure $2B to Expand Sustainable Data Centers in the Western U.S.

Funding Will Complete Construction of Novva’s Flagship 175MW Salt Lake City Data Center, One of the Largest Direct-to-Chip Cooled AI Data Centers in the WorldLOS ANGELES & WEST

CIM Group, a real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer, and Novva Data Centers, a state-of-the-art data center company providing purpose-built facilities across the Western U.S., announced today that they recently closed a new commitment of $2 billion in financing from J.P. Morgan and Starwood Property Trust to complete the build-out of Novva’s flagship 175MW Salt Lake City data center. Founded in 2019 by CIM Group and Novva’s management team, Novva has moved quickly to bring its vision of purpose-built, sustainable data centers to life amid the soaring demand for capacity driven by increasing adoption of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (“AI”).

“This significant financing is further validation of the potential we saw in Novva’s proprietary data center design and its experienced and forward-thinking management team when we invested in the company five years ago,” said Avi Shemesh, Co-Founder and Principal, CIM Group. “As demand for AI and data center capacity grows, we believe Novva continues to be strongly positioned as one of the most innovative and fastest-growing data center companies in the U.S. developing sustainable, highly efficient data centers at low cost.”

The new financing will allow Novva to complete the second and third phases of construction of its 100-acre data center campus located in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan, Utah. Phase 2 of the project began construction in December 2023 and will feature the campus’s second 318,000-square-foot data center, which will have the capacity to produce 72MW of critical IT load and is expected to be fully complete by 2026. Phase 3 started construction in January 2024 and will also feature a 318,000-square-foot data center with 72MW critical IT capacity, and is expected to be complete in 2026. When completed, the Salt Lake City data center campus will span a total of one million square feet and feature 175MW of capacity, making it one of the largest direct-to-chip cooled AI data centers in the world. The first phase of the campus began operations in 2023 and has become well-known for its design and engineering aspects, including the ability to operate without water year-round and cool with ambient air. The campus was fully leased in 2023 to a leading global tech company.

“Our Salt Lake City center is the first facility where we were able to fully showcase Novva’s vision for future-proof data center facilities that put sustainability, innovative technology, and client needs first, and we’re proud to continue that legacy with this second and third phase of construction,” said Novva CEO Wes Swenson. “Above and beyond the sustainability and technological sophistication our facilities bring, the Salt Lake City campus offers our clients some of the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry in a strategic location that offers low-cost power, low disaster risk, low latency, dense long-haul fiber, proximity to an international airport, no sales tax on equipment purchases and a high-altitude cold desert climate.”

In addition to its Salt Lake City campus, Novva also operates data centers in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada and is in the process of building data centers in Reno, Nevada, San Francisco and Mesa, Arizona. Novva employs renewable energy, high-density capacity, water-free cooling and innovative technologies like AI-powered robotic dogs for security and infrastructure monitoring in all its data centers. It has secured leases from top hyperscale AI and tech companies.

For more than 15 years, CIM Group has invested in infrastructure assets that provide necessary services and support the growth of communities across North America including in digital infrastructure, renewable energy, water management, waste management, transportation and social infrastructure. A key element of CIM Group’s data center investment with Novva is its innovative and proprietary water-free cooling system that minimizes the strain on water resources, which are particularly scarce in the Western U.S. CIM Group estimates that Novva’s fully operational Salt Lake City campus will consume approximately 84% less water than comparable data centers in the region.

J.P. Morgan acted as Lead Arranger and Starwood Property Trust acted as Arranger for the financing.