Equinix has surpassed a $1 billion EBITDA in Q2 2024 for the first time, reaching $1.036bn.

Revealed in its quarterly financial earnings report, the colo provider also saw quarterly revenues of $2.2bn, up seven percent year-on-year (YoY).

In terms of net income for the quarter, Equinix is up 45 percent YoY, posting $301 million.

Released on August 7, the quarter's results saw operating income up 20 percent compared to the previous quarter to $436m, which the company puts down to a "strong operating performance and a gain on the sale of our Silicon Valley 12 xScale [hyperscale] asset."

SV12x is a joint venture with PGIM that was announced in April 2024, and is expected to provide 28MW of IT capacity at full build-out.

The company is currently predicting 2024 to have a total revenue of between $8.692 - $8.772bn and EBITDA between $4.066bn - $4.126bn, with a 47 percent adjusted EBITDA margin.

The majority of Equinix's revenue is generated in the America's, at $966m for the quarter. This is followed by EMEA, and then APAC.

Adaire Fox-Martin, CEO and president of Equinix, said: "Our strong performance in the second quarter, marked by record gross bookings, reinforces our belief that we are uniquely positioned to support our customers and partners in their business transformation agendas.

"As a key enabler of AI and cloud innovations on a global scale, we are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead."

The company is reporting net cash used in investing activities for the quarter of $734m, up from $727m in the previous quarter. Capex was $648m, including a recurring capex of $45m.

Keith Taylor, Equinix CFO, said: "We continue to invest across our platform with 54 major projects currently underway in 36 markets in 24 countries, including 15 xScale scale projects. Since our last earnings call, we opened 10 projects across eight metros, including new data centers in Johor, Lusaka, Silicon Valley, and Warsaw."

Taylor added: "2024 capex is expected to range between $2.8bn and $3.1bn, including about $240m of recurring capex."

Fox-Martin said that, in the short term, much of the demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is coming from cloud service providers, drawing attention to the company's xScale portfolio.

She added: "But many CIOs like during the early days of cloud are looking to ensure that they have an AI strategy. We are beginning to see the beginnings of enterprise training and enterprise funnel as we look at customers, looking to evolve their strategy into proof of concept, and beyond that into working production systems," noting that the company expects to see demand in its retail data centers as well as the xScale facilities.

She added later in the call that the company "absolutely [has] AI-ready data centers" and has already closed some transactions for smaller AI-based workloads. Fox-Martin expects this to expand in the "medium to longer term."

Equinix was notably accused in March 2024 of "major accounting manipulations" by short-seller Hindenburg Research. This triggered an internal investigation by Equinix's board of investors, which in May 2024 refuted those accusations and said: "Based on the findings of the independent investigation, the audit committee has concluded that Equinix's financial reporting has been accurate and that the application of its accounting practices has resulted in an appropriate representation of its operating performance."

While the internal investigation has been conducted, Equinix also received subpoenas from the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are ongoing.

In response to analyst questions at the latest earnings call, CFO Taylor said: "We're continuing to work with the SEC and the DOJ. It's a process. We're working through that process. We continue to feel very confident in that process and how we're responding to it."

Taylor also reiterated the internal investigation conclusion, adding: "I think it was very important when you look at what we announced in May, we were clear that not only did we not have any restatements but we didn't have any adjustments."

Other key announcements by Equinix for the quarter include the acquisition of three data centers in the Philippines, calls for district heating project partners, and a possible minority stake sale in its Hong Kong data centers.