Digital Infrastructure · Data centres

What flows through a data centre — and how it pays

A data centre leases IT capacity — measured in kilowatts of critical power — to tenants on long contracts. Power and data flow through racks of servers; tenants pay recurring rent plus power & connectivity. With most costs fixed on a built facility, the economics turn on occupancy (lease-up), the rent achieved, and energy efficiency (PUE) — high operating leverage means margins climb sharply as the halls fill.

85%
£130
1.30
LIVE
Power in grid → UPS → racks (with cooling) Data out servers → network → customers Tenant £ rent + power & connectivity Operating cost
Flows — annualised from current assumptionsper year
Revenue p.a.
£0
£0 / hr
EBITDA p.a.
£0
0% margin
Revenue / kW·mo
£0
rent + services
Leased capacity
0
85% occupancy
Stocks — what the flows accumulate intolive
IT load now
0
live, of 40 MW capacity
EBITDA banked · session
£0
accumulating in real time
Implied enterprise value
£0
at 20× EBITDA
Where revenue comes from Total £0 p.a.
Recurring rent
Power & connectivity
Why investors like it: recurring rent on long leases to creditworthy tenants is a stable, inflation-linked annuity — close to real estate but with a powerful demand tailwind (cloud & AI). Power & connectivity (recharges, cross-connects, managed services) add a stickier, higher-churn layer. With the facility's costs largely fixed, every point of occupancy and £ of rent drops almost straight to EBITDA — which is why lease-up is everything.
Revenue streams£0 p.a.
Operating costs£0 p.a.
Investment case — should you buy it?DCF returns

Year-1 financials flow live from the simulation above: revenue £0 and EBITDA £0 p.a. Set your deal terms below — the unlevered IRR (asset return) and levered IRR (return to equity, after debt) recompute instantly.

Operating

%
%
%
%
%
%

Valuation & hold

×
×
y

Financing

×
%
%
Unlevered IRR
—
asset / project return
Levered IRR
—
return to equity
Equity multiple
—
MOIC over hold
Equity gain
—
exit equity − invested
Equity cash-flow profile£m · ■ invested   ■ returned
Projection — £m per year

Illustrative model. Represents a ~40 MW IT-capacity colocation data centre operating 24×365. Revenue = leased kW × (rent + power & connectivity). Tenants' IT power is recharged; the operator bears the cooling/common-power overhead set by PUE (total facility power = IT load × PUE), so a lower PUE means a higher margin. Most other costs (staff, maintenance, connectivity, insurance, rates) are largely fixed, giving high operating leverage on occupancy. EBITDA = revenue − operating costs. The investment case is a simplified DCF: unlevered IRR discounts free cash flow to the firm (EBITDA − cash tax − capex) plus an exit on the EV/EBITDA multiple; levered IRR is the equity cash flow after debt. For illustration only — not investment advice, and not any specific asset.