Blackstone builds data center in Westphalia for billions

The Blackstone Group is planning to build a new data center in the Westfalen industrial park. Minister President Hendrik Wüst confirmed the investment on Friday. Three building complexes are planned, which are to be operated entirely with renewable energies. For the towns of Hamm and Lippetal, this represents one of the largest settlements in their history. The investment sum is expected to amount to 4 billion euros.

Structural change as a leitmotif

Hamm and the municipality of Lippetal are located in the eastern Ruhr region and southern Münsterland in North Rhine-Westphalia. Hamm is an economically highly diversified location with a focus on logistics, mechanical engineering and energy and benefits from good connections to highways, railroads and the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Lippetal is characterized by its medium-sized industry and agricultural businesses and benefits from its proximity to Hamm and other regional economic centers. Both locations offer companies inexpensive business premises, well-trained specialists and attractive conditions for investment.

The investment is a visible signal of the ongoing structural change in North Rhine-Westphalia. Away from the traditional coal-mining region and towards a center for digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The state government is actively driving this change and is thus attracting increasing international attention.

Global investors back NRW

The fact that a global investor such as Blackstone is backing NRW underlines the attractiveness of the location. The billions invested in the Rhenish mining area and now in Westphalia show that NRW wants to play a leading role in the next industrial and digital revolution.

The Blackstone Group is one of the world's leading investment and asset management companies based in the USA. Founded in 1985, Blackstone manages assets of several trillion US dollars and is active in the areas of private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit and hedge fund strategies. The company is known for its large-scale strategic investments and its commitment to sustainable, future-oriented projects, such as data centers, renewable energy and digital infrastructure.

NRW demonstrates that the combination of political backing, strategic infrastructure and sustainable energy supply makes the location extremely attractive for global high-tech investments.