Dear Shareholders,
As we reflect on the past year, let us start by sharing our immense gratitude for our 12,000+ Equinix team members. In 2022, the team once again delivered exceptional results for all of our stakeholders. Revenues surpassed $7 billion for the first time as we delivered our 80th consecutive quarter of revenue growth to punctuate an amazing 20-year run of uninterrupted growth, while also driving AFFO per share performance above the top end of our long-term expectations.
Even amidst a dynamic and complex global landscape, digital transformation remains a clear priority across all industries. Digital leaders continue to harness our trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. In the context of this secular demand environment, we remain confident that Equinix remains uniquely positioned as a company to serve an increasingly digital world.
Over our nearly 25-year history, we have cultivated a distinctive and durable set of strategic advantages. Our market-leading global reach, vibrant digital ecosystems and comprehensive interconnection platform allow our customers to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital solutions, deliver world-class experiences and enhance value to their stakeholders. With regard to our global reach, Equinix remains the best manifestation of the interconnected digital edge with a footprint spanning 71 markets in 32 countries. In 2022, through our acquisition of MainOne, we entered West Africa, the first step in our long-term strategy to become the infrastructure partner of choice for expansion on the African continent. We also acquired five data centers from Entel in Chile and Peru, solidifying Equinix’s position as the largest provider of digital services in Latin America. Organically, we also have our first developments underway in Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa.
In our Digital Services portfolio, we continue to see strong growth and opportunity as our customers look to realize the benefits of deploying and interconnecting their digital infrastructure at software speed. Our offerings across Equinix Metal®, Equinix Fabric® and Network Edge are enabling increased access to our ecosystems with greater agility and flexibility. Additionally, customers are leveraging our digital offerings to simplify their global expansions and navigate ongoing supply chain constraints.
As a global market leader, we are committed to responsible growth and we continue to advance our bold “Future First” sustainability agenda that reflects our company’s values across environmental, social and governance initiatives. Related to our environmental commitments, we continue to extend our industry leadership with 96% renewable energy coverage for the year, marking our fifth consecutive year with over 90% renewable energy coverage, taking into consideration the meaningful increase in energy consumption over this time period. We are also progressing well on the science-based targets (SBT) we established in 2021 with a 23% reduction in operational emissions across Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our 2019 baseline. In December, we announced our commitment to further reduce our power use by widening the operating temperature ranges within our data centers, the first such commitment in our sector. Over time, this initiative is expected to drive efficiency improvements through sustainable operating practices, enhancing the power usage effectiveness of our facilities. We remain steadfast in our commitment to environmental sustainability and were pleased to be added to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s prestigious Climate Change 2022 A List for the first time, reflecting the dedicated effort of our teams.
In September 2022, we launched The Equinix Foundation, an employee-driven charitable organization working to advance digital inclusion through philanthropic grant-making and strategic partnerships. The Equinix Foundation reflects our ongoing commitment to social sustainability, and we are excited about the work we can do to build a better, more inclusive and more sustainable world by harnessing and amplifying the passion of our people to help close the digital divide in our communities across the globe. Beyond the Equinix Foundation, our employees gave back to our communities by volunteering over 22,700 hours and donating more than $2 million in 2022. Also, we were pleased to be named one of Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” for the third consecutive year and to be ranked #1 in Real Estate in JUST Capital’s 2023 rankings for the second consecutive year. These recognitions are a testament to our culture and the amazing work by our global teams.
As we look ahead to 2023 and beyond, we believe the opportunity for our business remains exceptional as enterprises and service providers alike look to Platform Equinix® as a key partner in advancing their digital transformation agenda. As we execute on this opportunity, we have a clear set of priorities for the coming year.
First, we intend to press our advantage in our interconnected colocation franchise by continuing to scale and evolve our best-in-class booking engine, delivering on key projects to enhance operating leverage, and integrating our sustainability leadership into our services in ways that can help our customers meet their commitments to environmental and social responsibility.
Second, we intend to continue to enrich Platform Equinix by accelerating the growth of our digital offerings, delivering a more unified set of platform capabilities and by investing in ecosystem enablement, empowering key partners to bring their value to our platform more quickly and easily and allowing us to leverage their significant go-to-market reach.
We will advance these priorities by continuing to cultivate a culture that remains firmly people first. We’re committed to making Equinix a place that attracts, inspires and develops the best talent in our industry, cultivating an “in service to” mindset and creating a place where every person, every day can say “I’m safe, I belong, and I matter.”
We are excited about the growing opportunity in front of us and remain confident in our continued execution as we expand our market leadership, reinforce our competitive advantage and drive sustained value creation for our stakeholders. Together, we remain in passionate pursuit of our purpose, “To be the platform where the world comes together, enabling the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet.”
#InServiceTo
Charles Meyers
President & CEO
Equinix, Inc.
Peter Van Camp
Executive Chairman
Equinix, Inc.
Keith Taylor
Chief Financial Officer
Equinix, Inc.
Read the original letter here.
