Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) launched the Equinix Enhanced Performance Innovation Centers (EPIC) on October 21, 2026, a global network of production-ready environments where enterprises can test and validate liquid-cooled AI infrastructure before full-scale deployment. The initiative addresses a critical gap in enterprise readiness as artificial intelligence workloads shift from experimentation to production, with EPIC currently operational in Frankfurt, London, Osaka, Paris, and Sydney, with additional locations planned for 2027.
- Current locations: Frankfurt, London, Osaka, Paris, and Sydney
- Expansion timeline: Additional centers opening in 2027
- Key capability: Test and validate liquid-cooled GPU and CPU platforms under real-world conditions
- Support model: Access to Equinix experts and leading technology partners
The infrastructure cooling challenge has become a strategic bottleneck for enterprises deploying AI at scale. As GPU platforms grow increasingly powerful, rack densities surge and liquid cooling demands intensify. Few organizations possess the integrated expertise to align cooling, power, networking, and facility operations; gaps in any single area can delay production deployments significantly. EPIC enables enterprises to trial advanced hardware platforms and run AI training and inference workloads in live Equinix data centers, identifying infrastructure and operational issues before committing to large-scale investments.
Liquid cooling is an essential component of modern enterprise infrastructure and a hard requirement for customer’s deploying AI. EPIC provides businesses with a place to test, validate and build with confidence before they commit to large-scale deployments. We’re putting our global infrastructure footprint and unmatched ecosystem to work to accelerate the path from concept to production for our customers.
– Brian Stein, Senior Vice President, Infrastructure Products and Services, Equinix
Liquid cooling was new territory for us, so we built our confidence step by step. Our AI runs across a distributed footprint, and the infrastructure must perform the same way wherever it sits. We saw how liquid cooling performed in practice, learned what it took to run it well, and then committed to scale. Equinix was with us at every stage, with the expertise and the live environment to prove it out first. That’s what turned liquid cooling from an open question into a core part of our distributed AI infrastructure.
– Matthieu Blumberg, Senior Vice President of Engineering Infrastructure, Security, Internal IT & CISO, Criteo
EPIC extends Equinix‘s existing innovation framework, building on its 2022 Co-Innovation Facility for partner technology testing and its 2024 Solution Validation Centers for distributed environment validation. The program reduces risk and accelerates time-to-production for enterprises scaling AI infrastructure globally. Equinix is a digital infrastructure and data center operator that provides connectivity solutions and enables AI deployment across multiple geographies.
Brian Stein, Senior Vice President, Infrastructure Products and Services at Equinix. Source: LinkedIn
Matthieu Blumberg, Senior Vice President of Engineering Infrastructure, Security, Internal IT & CISO at Criteo. Source: LinkedIn
