Canadian technology firm Hypertec is considering taking its data center and cloud unit, 5C, public.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Canadian Finance Conference in New York this week, Hypertec CEO Simon Ahdoot said: "Realistically, the growth trajectory we've seen makes it so we're absolutely considering an IPO. That's something that I expect will be in further discussions after we close the current round of financing."

Hypertec formed 5C Group last year, spinning out its Hypertec Cloud division and merging it with the acquired 5C Data Centers. Since then, the unit has raised more than $1.4 billion. That total includes equity financing led by Brookfield Asset Management and debt financing led by Deutsche Bank AG. Hypertec remains 5C's largest shareholder.

The next step is larger by an order of magnitude. "The next piece is going to raise an incremental $5 billion or $6 billion in a combination of debt and equity," Ahdoot said.

2GW pipeline across four US states

5C has facilities in development across Ohio, Arizona, North Carolina, and Tennessee. At full build-out, the portfolio could reach more than 2GW of capacity. The company also plans to expand into Europe to support AI firm Together AI.

The unit traces its lineage through several corporate transactions. Hypertec, founded in 1984 as an IT systems and system manufacturing business, previously operated a data center business, Hypertec DCS, which it sold to Vantage in 2020.

The company then acquired Cloud.co in 2021 and relaunched it as Hypertec Cloud. The cloud unit has previously said it offers services from 12 owned and colocation facilities globally.

Crowded IPO pipeline

5C would join a growing list of data center and cloud companies that have recently gone public or are preparing to do so. Nscale, Firmus, SB Energy, Lambda, Vantage, CyrusOne, and DayOne are set to IPO in the near future. Csquare, Magnora, Cerebras, Sharon AI, and SpaceX have completed IPOs this year.

For Hypertec, an IPO would mark the latest stage in a corporate reorganization that began with the 2020 divestment of its original data center business and accelerated through the 2021 cloud acquisition and last year's spin-out. The timing, according to Ahdoot, depends on closing the current financing round first.