HSBC has agreed to provide $550m (£408m) to a United Arab Emirates-based data centre and AI infrastructure company to support the deployment of sites across the US and Europe.
Core42, owned by the Abu Dhabi-based tech holding company G42, secured the funding across two structured trade finance facilities, according to the company. These are meant to back Core42’s hyperscale infrastructure offering as facilities spring up globally to feed the massive rise in compute demand driven by AI adoption.
“The trade finance facilities represent a defining moment for Core42 and for the broader AI infrastructure sector,” said Neha Gupta, finance chief at Core42. She described the deal as reflecting “growing institutional recognition of AI architecture as long-duration, industrial-grade capacity.”
Gupta added that the HSBC funding will strengthen Core42’s ability to “deploy capacity at speed across the US and Europe while maintaining financial discipline and a long-term growth framework.” She noted that as enterprises and governments scale mission-critical AI workloads, the underlying cloud and compute platforms must be resilient and built to support sustained demand.
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HSBC deepens its data centre footprint
The bank already operates several of its own data centres and has invested heavily in the sector. Shaikha AlMarri, head of banking in the UAE for HSBC, said the structured trade finance facilities are “designed to support the financing of Core42’s current deployment, while also establishing a robust framework that enables streamlined access to funding for future initiatives.”
AlMarri said the flexibility demonstrates the bank’s “strong appreciation of the unique requirements and dynamics within the technology sector.”
The demand for data centre capacity has surged globally. Hyperscalers and cloud providers are racing to build facilities near population centers, but also in regions with cheap power and land. Core42’s focus on the US and Europe puts it in direct competition with established players like Equinix and Digital Realty, as well as newer entrants funded by private equity.
How trade finance supports AI buildouts
Structured trade finance typically involves short- to medium-term credit backed by specific assets or contracts. In this case, the facilities are tied to Core42’s hardware procurement and construction timelines. That arrangement allows the company to accelerate deployment without tying up its own balance sheet.
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Core42 did not disclose the exact terms or maturity of the facilities. The firm described them as “structured trade finance” without further detail. G42, the parent company, has been expanding its AI partnerships globally, including a deal with Microsoft last year that raised some national security questions in the US. Those concerns appear to have cooled after it restructured its operations.
For the bank, the deal fits a pattern of lenders creating specialized financing arms for technology infrastructure. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and others have set up units to lend against data centres, fiber networks, and even renewable energy projects that power them.
But it’s not all smooth. Construction costs for these facilities have risen sharply due to supply chain bottlenecks and labor shortages. Power availability is another constraint — some regions in the US have waiting lists for grid connections that stretch years.
Core42’s parent company has a checkered past
G42, established in 2018, is backed by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security advisor. The firm has drawn scrutiny over its ties to Chinese AI firms and its past use of surveillance technology. In 2023, it promised to unwind its Chinese investments and adopt US-approved technology after pressure from Washington.
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Core42 was spun out of G42’s cloud and data centre division. The company operates facilities in the UAE and has been hiring aggressively in Europe. Its website lists data centre locations in Frankfurt, London, and Amsterdam, though some of those are likely colocation arrangements rather than wholly owned sites.
The HSBC backing gives Core42 a stamp of credibility with Western lenders. That could help the company secure additional financing or customers who are skittish about doing business with UAE-linked firms.
Construction of such facilities is expected to consume roughly 8% of global electricity by 2030, up from about 2% today, according to the International Energy Agency. That growth is almost entirely tied to AI training and inference workloads. Even so, the pace of deployment is still failing to keep up with demand from hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, which are all competing for the same limited pool of power and equipment.
The bank’s move into financing AI infrastructure is notable because trade finance facilities are not the typical tool for this sector. If the structure works, other lenders are likely to follow — and the line between trade finance and project finance may blur further.
