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Areim Secures $481 Million for Sustainable Data Centers

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Swedish fund manager Areim has raised €450 million ($481 million) to support the development of sustainable data centers, reinforcing efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the energy-intensive sector. The investment comes amid growing concerns over data center emissions, which are projected to reach 2.5 billion metric tons of CO₂-equivalent by 2030, according to Morgan Stanley.

Leif Andersson, founder of Areim and chairman of EcoDataCenter, highlighted the significance of securing capital at this scale. He emphasized the company’s commitment to driving innovation in digital infrastructure alongside its customers.

The funding, sourced from undisclosed international investors, will be deployed through EcoDataCenter, a company under Areim’s portfolio. Established in 2019, EcoDataCenter designs, builds, and operates data centers focused on reducing carbon emissions and optimizing energy efficiency through renewable energy and advanced technology.

Areim and EcoDataCenter have collectively secured approximately €1.2 billion in funding over the past two years, marking a substantial commitment to sustainable data infrastructure.

Keppel’s Profit Boosted by Strong Data Centre Demand

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Singapore’s Keppel Corporation reported a 5% rise in its full-year underlying profit, driven by robust performance in its connectivity segment, particularly in the data centre business. The company’s data centre operations saw an impressive 45% increase in annual net profit, reflecting the surging demand for digital infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence services.

Keppel’s connectivity arm, which operates data centres that house servers and other computing equipment, has benefitted from the growing need for AI-driven digital infrastructure, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. As AI and other digital services expand, investments in data centres are expected to grow, further bolstering the company’s performance.

The firm, originally established over 56 years ago as a shipbuilding yard, has plans to more than double its data centre funds under management and increase its capacity, as announced in October. However, the highest-earning segment of Keppel’s infrastructure business saw a slight 4% decline in profit to S$673 million, largely due to lower fair value gains and reduced distributions from Keppel Infrastructure Trust.

Keppel’s net profit from continuing operations, excluding its offshore and marine assets, rose to S$1.06 billion ($784.20 million) in 2024, up from S$1.02 billion the previous year. The company, transitioning into an asset management firm, has set a target to manage S$200 billion in assets by 2030. As of December, its funds under management reached S$88 billion.

The company declared a final dividend of 19 Singapore cents per share, consistent with last year’s payout.

 

Microsoft’s Massive Outlook and Teams Outage Resolved After More Than a Day

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Microsoft faced a significant outage that impacted Outlook and Teams services for over a day, affecting millions of users globally. The company initially projected a quick resolution, expecting the issue to be fixed within three hours. However, the recovery process turned out to be more prolonged, with Microsoft updating users multiple times throughout the day.

By noon, the company reported that the fix had reached around 98% of the affected environments. However, despite these efforts, reports of ongoing disruptions continued to flood monitoring platforms like Downdetector. It became apparent that updates were taking longer to reach some systems than anticipated, with progress slower than expected for the majority of users.

Microsoft did not offer a new estimated time for a full recovery, and by 2 p.m. ET, the company confirmed that delays were still affecting the restoration process.

The Impact of the Outage

While the outage severely disrupted many office workers’ ability to perform tasks via Outlook and Teams, some users in the U.S. found a silver lining, celebrating the unplanned break as they approached the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

This issue follows a series of major tech outages this year. However, Microsoft’s situation was not as widespread as other notable disruptions. The most significant outage of 2024 was caused by a software failure at CrowdStrike during the summer, which grounded air travel, disrupted hospital systems, and caused over $5 billion in direct losses to Fortune 500 companies.

A Cautionary Tale for Tech Giants

The Microsoft outage highlights the ongoing vulnerabilities in modern digital infrastructures, showing how quickly tech failures can affect both business productivity and day-to-day operations. While the issue has now been resolved, it serves as a reminder of the fragility of critical online services and the increasing reliance on such platforms in the workplace.