Hillhouse seeks $600M loan to invest in data center operator DayOne

Hillhouse Investment is in talks to secure a $600 million loan earmarked for an investment in DayOne, the Singapore-headquartered data center operator that has quietly become one of the most capital-hungry infrastructure plays in Asia-Pacific.

The money trail behind DayOne

DayOne was originally founded in 2022 as GDS International, the overseas arm of GDS Holdings, a major Chinese data center operator. It became a fully independent entity on January 1, 2025, rebranding as DayOne.

DayOne closed a $4.5 billion Series C equity round on June 5, 2026, led by Coatue and Hillhouse, who are now the company’s largest shareholders. The initial tranche of that round, exceeding $2 billion, was announced back in January 2026.

Hillhouse participated in a $505 million private placement in GDS Holdings as far back as 2020. Reports from 2024 noted discussions around $500 million to $600 million in potential investments into GDS’s Southeast Asian operations, which were effectively the precursor assets that became DayOne.

Why data centers, why now

DayOne operates and develops hyperscale data center campuses across Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and Spain. The company has secured over 1.5 gigawatts of capacity bookings since inception.

What this means for investors

The risk is that AI infrastructure spending cools before all this capacity gets utilized. Data centers have long construction timelines, and the market is pricing in demand projections that assume continued exponential growth in AI workloads. Hillhouse is clearly betting that won’t happen, and putting $600 million in borrowed money behind that conviction.

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