Macquarie Group is lending up to €117 million (US$136 million) to German data centre infrastructure start-up Polarise, a NVIDIA cloud partner, as debt continues to flow into the sector.

The funding, via Macquarie’s Specialised and Asset Finance unit within Commodities and Global Markets, will support the fit out of Polarise’s Munich AI data centre and other AI data centre and GPU projects in Germany and across Europe.

Polarise said on Monday that the Munich facility is intended to underpin Germany’s planned industrial cloud platform, with the site expected to form a central part of the rollout.

Macquarie said the financing would allow Polarise to proceed with the Munich build and meet an early 2026 target for the project’s launch. 

Michel Boutouil, CEO of Polarise, said: “This financing is pivotal in helping us realise our vision to support Germany’s AI-driven industrial transformation and build the backbone of Europe’s AI ambitions.”

He added that Macquarie moved quickly and brought sector expertise that helped get the project over the line. He added that the Munich site is expected to raise the bar on reliability, scalability, and sustainability for customers.

Tom McDonell, an associate director in Macquarie’s Specialised and Asset Finance division, said Macquarie was partnering with Polarise to support the project, citing the company’s high-performance computing expertise. 

“This partnership reflects our shared commitment to innovation and advancing transformative technologies in the AI infrastructure sector.”

Macquarie said its Specialised and Asset Finance unit structures bespoke financing for AI and high-performance computing infrastructure projects globally.

Polarise was founded in 2024 by former executives from Northern Data AG and focuses on refitting existing sites for AI-focused data centres.

The company positions itself as an end-to-end provider of AI-ready facilities in Germany and across Europe, developing and operating what it calls “AI Factories”. 

It also offers access to computing capacity through its own cloud platform, alongside colocation, private cloud deployments, and APIs for direct use. Polarise says it builds and operates 13 data centres worldwide.

This development follows a long list of deals flowing to the German data centre sector over the past six months. 

In November, Google said it would invest €5.5 billion (US$6.38 billion) in Germany from 2026 to 2029, covering data centres, offices, and clean energy, including a new site in Dietzenbach and continued investment in Hanau.

Last month, Arcadis said its subsidiary KUA won four German data centre contracts in Frankfurt and Berlin worth a combined €8 million (US$8.7 million), taking Arcadis’ global data centre project count to 229.

More recently, Schwarz Digits, the Schwarz Group’s IT and digital services arm, said it will invest €11 billion (US$12 billion) to build a large data centre campus in Lübbenau, Brandenburg, on a 13 hectare former thermal power plant site.