Why cloud provider Anexia is now buying power plants in Austria
Author: Uwe Sommersguter
published on 2024/11/28 in Kleine Zeitung
Anexia wants to generate the electricity for 110 data centers worldwide itself in the long term. The first small hydropower plant on the Liesing river in Styria is to be followed by others.
Anexia, founded in 2006, operates around 110 data centers in 100 cities worldwide. The cloud service provider based in Klagenfurt is now one of the most renowned of its kind in the world, with customers such as Rewe, BMW, Allianz, Palfinger and Lufthansa entrusting their data to the Carinthian company. Data centers are considered energy-intensive, and Anexia’s electricity requirements continue to rise as the company expands.
Seven-figure purchase price
The founder and CEO of Anexia, Alexander Windbichler, is now pursuing the vision of generating energy “sustainably and honestly” for his cloud company. “In the long term”, he wants to become ‘sovereign’, i.e. independent of electricity suppliers. Of course, there is still a long way to go, but the first step has already been taken: Windbichler recently acquired a small hydropower plant in Kammern in the Liesingtal region of Styria for a “significant seven-figure sum” – i.e. several million euros. The power plant on the River Liesing generates 600 KW of electricity, enough to cover a third of the electricity consumption of Anexia’s Vienna data center.
“Sensible expansion”
Further hydropower plants are on his “shopping list” (“Unfortunately, there are only a few for sale”), but Windbichler is also interested in purchasing PV systems and wind turbines. “We want to decouple ourselves from the electricity market by generating our own power,” is his goal. Power plants are a “sensible extension of the value chain” for a cloud provider. The ideal scenario would be if the computing power could be transferred to the power plant, i.e. data centers could be built directly next to the power generation, which would also save grid costs.
“Becoming digitally sovereign”
Anexia CEO Windbichler is also concerned with the need to become sovereign in the core business itself. He had already experienced the dependence of European companies on the USA in the digital sector first-hand when they were put under massive pressure by industry giant Broadcom. This made him realize the existential risks that Europe was taking with its enormous dependence on the USA: “Only if we are digitally sovereign will we be on an equal footing with everyone,” says Windbichler. Data centers are not gas storage facilities; data can be withdrawn within a very short time. Windbichler warns that there is only sufficient security if data is accessed in accordance with European law.
Here you can find the original article in German: Kleine Zeitung