Expert Interview
Analyzing Whether Private Fiber and On-Prem Edge Buildouts Create Structural Pricing Risk for Equinix and the Data Center REIT Sector
Ticker(s): EQIX, DLR, IRM, AMT- Digital Infrastructure Strategist & AI Growth Advisor to Fortune 500 companies. With a career spanning over two decades, they have been at the forefront of transformative changes in the technology and financial services sectors.
- Founding Partner at CarveOut Partners, advising institutional investors, operators, and developers on AI infrastructure, neocloud economics, and digital transformation strategies across data center and fintech ecosystems.
- Deep understanding of the AI compute and digital infrastructure landscape, including the evolution of neocloud providers like Nebius and CoreWeave, their funding models, and the interplay between AI-driven workloads, GPU supply, and enterprise adoption dynamics.
From your vantage point inside Equinix and now advising PE, how do you distinguish between tactical customer cost-optimization and a true structural threat to Equinix’s pricing power? What indicators actually matter?
Added By: james_adminWhen hyperscalers or large enterprises pursue private fiber, where do the economics break down versus using Equinix-anchored interconnection? In practice, which workloads genuinely justify bypassing the colo ecosystem?
Is on-prem edge computing fundamentally a substitute for carrier-neutral colocation, or does it actually increase demand for metro-scale interconnection hubs like Equinix over time? Where do investors get this wrong?
Added By: james_adminIf private infrastructure adoption accelerates, where would pricing pressure show up first at Equinix, cross-connects, cabinets, power density, or interconnection services, and where is pricing most defensible?
You built Equinix’s segmentation models, which customer segments are most likely to pursue private fiber/on-prem strategies, and which segments remain structurally “sticky” to third-party colocation?
Investors often extrapolate hyperscaler behavior to the entire market. Based on your experience, how misleading is that when assessing structural risk for data center REITs?
At what point does the network-effect advantage of dense ecosystems overwhelm private build economics? Is there a minimum “ecosystem gravity” threshold where Equinix becomes irreplaceable?
Added By: james_adminYou lived through financial markets building private infrastructure and then re-centralizing. What lessons from trading venues, exchanges, and capital markets directly apply to today’s private fiber and edge buildout debate?
If private fiber and edge are not structurally disruptive, why do you think public markets continue to price in long-term multiple compression for data center REITs? What are investors misunderstanding?
What specific technological, regulatory, or economic change would genuinely undermine Equinix’s interconnection-driven pricing power? In other words, what should investors actually be watching for as a red flag?
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