DataBank CFO Kevin Ooley on Financing for Scale in the AI Era

Data Center Frontier sat down with DataBank CFO Kevin Ooley for a wide-ranging conversation on how capital strategy and disciplined development are shaping the company’s growth in an AI-driven market. At the center of the discussion is DataBank’s expansion of its development credit facility from $725 million to $1.6 billion—a move Ooley describes as a strong signal of lender confidence in data centers as long-duration, mission-critical assets.

Central to the strategy is DataBank’s “Devco facility,” a pooled, revolving financing vehicle that supports multiple projects at different stages—from land acquisition through construction, leasing, and commissioning.

“The Devco facility gives us strategic optionality in the AI era. It’s a line of credit that allows us to accelerate or pause development without renegotiating project-level financing each time customer demand shifts.”
— Kevin Ooley, CFO, DataBank

DataBank is currently focused on approximately 10 priority U.S. markets, with nearly 20 projects underway that will expand capacity from 60 MW to 107 MW. The company manages leverage through hedging, fixed-rate refinancing, and disciplined capacity pricing.Read the full interview at Data Center Frontier.