Summary
- Digital Realty has started construction of ZUR4 at its Glattbrugg campus, targeting 15MW of IT capacity.
- The 6,300 sq m facility is scheduled for completion in 2028 and is designed for high-density and AI workloads.
- ZUR4 will extend an existing three-facility campus serving more than 200 customers in Switzerland.
Digital Realty has started construction of a fourth data centre at its Glattbrugg campus near Zurich, adding a planned 15MW of IT capacity to one of Switzerland’s principal colocation and connectivity locations.
The ZUR4 facility will provide approximately 6,300 sq m of data centre space and is scheduled for completion in 2028. Digital Realty said the building is being designed for high-density deployments and AI workloads, although it has not disclosed target rack densities or the precise cooling architecture.
ZUR4 will sit alongside the company’s existing ZUR1, ZUR2, and ZUR3 facilities. Digital Realty says the campus already supports more than 200 customers, giving the new building access to an established connectivity and customer ecosystem rather than creating a standalone greenfield location.
The operator describes Glattbrugg as its best-connected campus in Switzerland and intends ZUR4 to offer direct cloud connectivity through its wider PlatformDIGITAL network. For customers with data-location or resilience requirements, the expansion also adds more capacity within Switzerland rather than requiring workloads to be placed in neighbouring European markets.
Digital Realty has emphasised energy-efficient architecture and advanced cooling systems in the design, but the announcement does not specify whether ZUR4 will use direct liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, conventional air cooling, or a mixed system. That detail will become increasingly relevant as the facility is fitted out for higher-density compute.
Zurich joins a wider European construction programme
The project forms part of a broader European pipeline. Digital Realty pointed to ongoing construction at FRA20 in Frankfurt and VIE13 in Vienna alongside its investment in Zurich, indicating that the company is continuing to add capacity across both major European hubs and comparatively smaller sovereign markets.
Switzerland has a distinct role in that network. Its financial-services base, data-protection requirements, enterprise market, and preference among some customers for locally hosted infrastructure support demand that is not entirely interchangeable with Frankfurt, Paris, or Amsterdam.
That local requirement can favour campus expansions. Existing data centres already have carrier relationships, operating teams, physical security systems, established utility arrangements, and customer interconnection. Extending a live campus can therefore reduce some of the commercial and operational risk compared with entering a new market from scratch.
The constraints do not disappear. Adding 15MW of IT load requires corresponding investment in incoming power, transformers, switchgear, backup systems, cooling, and distribution infrastructure. High-density compute can also change the relationship between nominal megawatts and usable white space because more power can be concentrated into fewer racks.
Digital Realty said its European portfolio, including its Swiss facilities, is supplied with renewable electricity. Its ZUR2 building has previously received the Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association’s Platinum Plus certification. Those credentials provide a benchmark for the new development, but the company has not yet published a target PUE, WUE, or detailed energy-performance specification for ZUR4.
Completion in 2028 also leaves time for the final compute mix to change. AI hardware refresh cycles are moving considerably faster than the construction cycle for large data centre buildings, forcing developers to design electrical and mechanical systems that can accommodate equipment that may not yet have been selected when ground is broken.
That is particularly relevant for cooling. Facilities originally designed around conventional enterprise densities can struggle to accommodate large liquid-cooled clusters without changes to pipework, heat rejection, coolant distribution, and maintenance practices. A new-build hall gives Digital Realty more freedom to incorporate those requirements from the outset.
ZUR4 will add a relatively modest 15MW compared with the very large hyperscale campuses now being proposed elsewhere in Europe, but its value lies in adding high-density capacity within an existing, connected metropolitan campus. The construction milestone moves the project beyond a land or planning proposal and into a delivery programme with a defined IT capacity and 2028 completion target.
