CPP Investments Partners With Goodman to Establish a A$14 Billion European Data Centre JV
CPP Investments has entered a major European data centre partnership with Australia’s Goodman Group, committing to a A$14 development platform aimed at meeting accelerating demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
The 50/50 joint venture, known as the Goodman European Data Centre Development Partnership, will focus on prime locations in Germany, the Netherlands and France. The strategy centres on building large-scale, high-quality facilities in some of Europe’s most sought-after digital infrastructure markets.
Initial equity commitments total A$3.9 billion (€2.2 billion), earmarked for four projects in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. Once completed, the developments are expected to deliver 435 megawatts of primary power capacity and 282 megawatts of IT load. All sites already have power secured, planning approvals in place and supporting infrastructure advanced, allowing construction to begin by mid-2026.
For CPP Investments, the deal marks its first dedicated data centre partnership in Europe and a further expansion of its global digital infrastructure strategy. The fund sees long-term opportunity in assets that support the backbone of the digital economy, particularly as AI adoption drives sustained demand for computing capacity.
Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Real Assets Max Biagosch said the venture builds on a longstanding relationship with Goodman and provides direct exposure to top-tier European markets.
“We are pleased to expand our longstanding partnership with Goodman Group and establish a strong European foothold in the data centre sector across key Tier 1 markets, aligned with our global data centre strategy,” he said. “By combining Goodman’s extensive development capabilities and powered landbank, with our global expertise in digital infrastructure investments, this partnership allows us to capitalise on a compelling growth opportunity for the long-term benefit of CPP contributors and beneficiaries.”
Goodman Group CEO Greg Goodman highlighted the scarcity and strategic value of the assets involved.
“A portfolio of this size and quality – located in Europe’s FLAP markets – is rare,” he said. “These powered locations are highly sought after to meet the rapidly growing requirement for cloud computing and AI adoption, particularly when they offer speed to market and delivery certainty. The quality and scale of this Partnership make it ideal for our long-term relationship with CPP Investments. We’re pleased to be investing alongside them for their entry into the European data centre market.”
The transaction is expected to complete in stages through March 2026, subject to standard closing conditions. The partnership adds to CPP Investments’ expanding exposure to global digital infrastructure as demand for data-intensive technologies continues to accelerate.
Zachary Skidmore of Data Center Dynamics also reports Goodman, CPP Investments establish €8bn European data center platform:
Goodman Group has teamed up with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) to establish a €8 billion (US$9.4bn) European data center partnership.
The 50/50 venture will see the companies commit an initial €2.2bn (US$2.59bn) to develop a portfolio of data center projects across Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris.
The Goodman European Data Centre Development Partnership will comprise four projects totalling 435MW of primary power and 282MW of IT load, including two in Paris (PAR01 and PAR02), one in Frankfurt (FRA02), and one in Amsterdam (AMS01).
“We are pleased to expand our longstanding partnership with Goodman Group and establish a strong European foothold in the data center sector across key Tier 1 markets, aligned with our global data center strategy. By combining Goodman’s extensive development capabilities and powered landbank, with our global expertise in digital infrastructure investments, this partnership allows us to capitalise on a compelling growth opportunity for the long-term benefit of CPP contributors and beneficiaries,” said Max Biagosch, senior managing director and global head of real assets at CPP Investments.
According to the partners, all projects have secured power connections, planning permits, and have substantially progressed site infrastructure works, which they claim will enable construction commencement by 30 June 2026.
“A portfolio of this size and quality – located in Europe’s FLAP markets – is rare. These powered locations are highly sought after to meet the rapidly growing requirement for cloud computing and AI adoption, particularly when they offer speed to market and delivery certainty. The quality and scale of this partnership make it ideal for our long-term relationship with CPP Investments. We’re pleased to be investing alongside them for their entry into the European data center market,” said Greg Goodman, CEO of Goodman Group.
The transaction will follow a phased approach with completion expected by March 2026, subject to closing conditions. The two companies have had a relationship since 2009, with investments across Australia, Asia, the Americas, and Europe.
CPP has made several significant investments in the digital infrastructure space. Most recently, in August, it announced an investment of C$225m (US$160m) to facilitate the expansion of a data center in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
CPP Investments made its first direct data center investment in 2017. Last November, it invested KRW 1 trillion (US$711m) in a joint venture with Pacific Asset Management Company to develop hyperscale data centers in South Korea, adding to an existing portfolio of joint ventures and investments across Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the US, and Canada.
Goodman Group is an Australian commercial property firm. Over the past few years, it has steadily expanded its data center business. It now has data center projects in operation or development across Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, the US, France, and Japan.
CPP Investments issued a press release stating it has partnered up with Goodman to establish a A$14 billion (€8 billion) European data centre partnership:
December 23, 2025. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) has signed an agreement to establish a A$14 billion (€8 billion) European data centre partnership with Goodman Group (ASX: GMG). The 50/50 Partnership involves an initial total capital commitment of A$3.9 billion (€2.2 billion) to develop a portfolio of data centre projects in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris.
The Goodman European Data Centre Development Partnership (GEDCDP or the Partnership) is CPP Investments’ first data centre partnership in Europe, significantly adding to its data centre portfolio. The Partnership’s portfolio comprises four projects totalling 435 MW of primary power and 282 MW of IT load – Paris (PAR01 and PAR02), Frankfurt (FRA02) and Amsterdam (AMS01). All projects provide speed to market with secured power connections, planning permits and substantially progressed site infrastructure works, enabling construction commencements by 30 June 2026.
Max Biagosch, Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Real Assets for CPP Investments said “We are pleased to expand our longstanding partnership with Goodman Group and establish a strong European foothold in the data centre sector across key Tier 1 markets, aligned with our global data centre strategy. By combining Goodman’s extensive development capabilities and powered landbank, with our global expertise in digital infrastructure investments, this partnership allows us to capitalise on a compelling growth opportunity for the long-term benefit of CPP contributors and beneficiaries.”
Group CEO of Goodman Group, Greg Goodman said, “a portfolio of this size and quality – located in Europe’s FLAP markets – is rare. These powered locations are highly sought after to meet the rapidly growing requirement for cloud computing and AI adoption, particularly when they offer speed to market and delivery certainty. The quality and scale of this Partnership make it ideal for our long-term relationship with CPP Investments. We’re pleased to be investing alongside them for their entry into the European data centre market.”
CPP Investments has partnered with Goodman Group since 2009 across Australia, Asia, The Americas and Europe. GEDCDP follows the establishment of the Goodman Hong Kong Data Centre Partnership and other data centre partnerships in Europe and Japan.
The transaction will settle in phases and is expected to be completed by March 2026 subject to closing conditions.
About CPP Investments
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments™) is a professional investment management organization that manages the Canada Pension Plan Fund in the best interest of the more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, we make investments around the world in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure, fixed income and alternative strategies including in partnership with funds. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm’s length from governments. At September 30, 2025, the Fund totalled C$777.5 billion.
For more information, please visit www.cppinvestments.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram or on X @CPPInvestments.
About Goodman
Goodman Group is a provider of essential infrastructure. It owns, develops and manages high quality, sustainable logistics properties and data centres in major global cities, that are critical to the digital economy.
Goodman has operations in key consumer markets across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Americas. Goodman Group, comprised of the stapled entities Goodman Limited, Goodman Industrial Trust and Goodman Logistics (HK) Limited, is the largest property group on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: GMG), a top 20 entity by market capitalisation, and one of the largest listed specialist investment managers of industrial property globally
The Group’s property portfolio includes logistics and distribution centres, warehouses, light industrial, multi-storey industrial, business parks and data centres. Goodman takes a long-term view, investing significantly alongside its capital partners in its investment management platform and concentrating the portfolio where it can create the most value for customers and investors.
For more information, visit: www.goodman.com
Alright, let me be quick here because Christmas is literally around the corner and I have tons of things to take care of.
This is another huge deal for CPP Investments expanding its global data centre strategy into Europe using this latest joint venture with longstanding partner Goodman.
As stated in the press release, the 50/50 Partnership involves an initial total capital commitment of A$3.9 billion (€2.2 billion) to develop a portfolio of data centre projects in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris.
Three key European cities where demand for data centres is exploding, straining grids.
In fact, Europe’s data centre build-out faces severe constraints due to limited grid investment and questions over the renewable energy sector’s ability to meet the surge in electricity demand.
There is no doubt that surging demand from EVs and data centres is reshaping Europe's electricity grid.
The same is happening everywhere where major investments in grids need to keep pace to meeting surging demand from EVs and data centres.
Anyways, back to CPP Investments. In September 2024, I discussed how it joined Blackstone to buy Asia Pacific data centre platform AirTrunk from Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) and PSP Investments in a A$24bn (€14.6bn) deal. You can read that comment here.
There is a myth out there when you're really big, you're too big to get into nice deals.
Complete nonsense, when you're Canada's largest pension fund, you have access to the biggest and best platforms around the world to get into deals others can only dream of.
This latest deal with Goodman proves that as do other deals I've covered like last week when I discussed how CPP Investments forged a $3 billion Dream logistics JV in Canada.
CPP Investments is the partner of choice for all these major deals as it should be.
Max Biagosch, Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Real Assets for CPP Investments summarized this deal well:
We are pleased to expand our longstanding partnership with Goodman Group and establish a strong European foothold in the data centre sector across key Tier 1 markets, aligned with our global data centre strategy. By combining Goodman’s extensive development capabilities and powered landbank, with our global expertise in digital infrastructure investments, this partnership allows us to capitalise on a compelling growth opportunity for the long-term benefit of CPP contributors and beneficiaries.
Now, you might be asking whether data centres are real estate or infrastructure, most pension funds classify them under "digital infrastructure" and because they have a longer lifespan, they fit more appropriately under infrastructure.
Goodman is an expert in logistics properties but it has also been developing data centres since 2005:
As providers of essential infrastructure for the digital economy, Goodman has been developing its data centre capability since 2005. Since then, we have grown to become a large owner of powered sites globally.
Our global power bank of 5.0 GW includes completed facilities, secured power and potential data centre projects across 13 major international cities. This has been built up over time through our expertise in securing land, planning and power in highly sought after locations in major global cities.
Goodman has delivered 0.8 GW of data centres and powered sites globally for its hyperscale and co-location customers. Our global data centre portfolio today includes a number of existing and brand-new data centre and technology hubs.
Goodman Group and its Partnerships have strong balance sheets, liquidity and low gearing. We’re well positioned to adapt to pursue investment opportunities and deliver on our customers critical infrastructure needs at scale.
We've got the capital, land and secured power, which combined with our proven engineering and delivery capability, will enable us to continue to deliver large-scale, high value, data centres. Our experience gives us valuable insight into precisely what and where our customers need to deploy capacity at scale.
With this latest deal, shares of in Goodman Group have soared after the property and infrastructure behemoth revealed plans to set up a multibillion-dollar European data centre business.
The other advantage of working with Goodman is its commitment to sustainable investing because let's face it, AI data centres have a bad carbon footprint.
These are all issues that need to worked out but this latest deal allows CPP Investments to take part in the AI boom by playing the infrastructure side of it (not Mag-7 where CEO John Graham recently said they are underweight).
Alright, that's a wrap for me, time to enjoy Christmas with my family and friends.
I wish all my readers celebrating a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
I also thank those of you who take the time to contribute to this blog to support my work (PayPal button on the top left-hand side under my picture is cold this winter).
Below, Goodman provides essential infrastructure for the digital economy. They deliver the critical warehouses and data centres needed to power the digital economy.
As the digital economy expands with the growth of e-commerce, AI, and increased computing requirements, so does their ability to provide the essential infrastructure needed to support its progress.
Goodman operates in key consumer markets in 15 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas. They are the largest property group listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and invest significantly alongside our capital partners in their investment Partnerships.
The company believes in innovation, determination, integrity and sustainability – a great longstanding partner of CPP Investments and other large institutional funds.
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