James Lewis

Investment Director Kao Data

James leads Kao Data’s investment strategies, financing structures and expansion plans. The company is seeking flexible and appropriate capital solutions that are designed to support their specific development requirements, and talented people that have the experience to support Kao Data’s growth plans and ambitions. James is currently focused on securing debt financing to fund the next stages of Kao Data’s expansion.

Day 1 | 3rd November

10:00 AM Panel: Assessing hyperscaler and platform strategies: How will compute be deployed across Europe and what will this mean for lease structures, contracts and long-term financing?

Where hyperscalers and major platforms choose to deploy compute will determine which assets become core infrastructure and which become optional. This panel will explore how AI networks are evolving, with centralised training clusters alongside distributed cloud zones and edge deployments, and what this means for future infrastructure demand.

Hear how AI and cloud demand may evolve over the next 3–5 years and whether the European landscape is likely to centralise around major hubs or expand into new regional markets. Understand how hyperscaler roadmaps influence where operators should prioritise capacity expansion, how flexible hyperscalers can be on contract structures, and what this means for development planning, site selection and long-term financing.

4:20 PM Roundtable 1: Funding the first 18 months: how to finance early-stage data centre development before hyperscaler commitment

Explore how to fund the most capital-intensive and least certain phases of the development cycle, prior to a customer commitment. Discuss the financing options available for these early stages and the trade-off of risk versus pricing, how investor appetite shifts depending on customer profile and credit quality, and what structures are emerging to support speculative build without eroding returns. Compare approaches to bridging this gap at scale, and how to position projects to secure capital earlier in the development timeline.