Continuing Switzerland’s data centre market construction boom, national operator SafeHost has now unveiled plans to invest CHF 131.5 million (US$142.5 million) in expanding its portfolio.

The cash commitment is destined to be used in the expansion of its SH2 data centre in Gland, one hour drive from Geneva.

The Webuild Group, through its subsidiary CSC Costruzioni SA in a joint venture with the Titanium Swiss Group, has been tasked with the construction of the building’s extension that is set to add 18 MW of capacity by early 2023.

SH2 currently has a power capacity of 40 MW across just over 150,000 sq ft of hosting space.

The expansion is SafeHost’s second in the space of just two months. Last April, the company announced the construction of a new data centre building in Beringen, north of Switzerland and close to the border with Germany.

The SH5 facility will be the fifth owned by Safe Host. Three of the other Safe Host data centres are located within the Geneva cluster with the fourth, SH4, currently being built in Rafz, 15km from Zurich.

Steve Webb, COO of Safe Host, said: “As a Swiss company, we are very pleased about our partnership with Schmidli and the municipality of Beringen. This project continues our mission to build digital infrastructure in Switzerland.”

The building application was then submitted on April 9, 2021. According to the project plan, construction work is to begin this year after the building permits have been obtained.