Zoom Builts "Data Center" to Scale Up

I bring this to the attention of the board because of the implied CapEx of Zoom continuing to build its own data centers. I didn’t know they were still doing this. We could see a one-time impact on GM, or ongoing if they keep doing this. Or this could just be baked in to ongoing expansion and we may not notice it at all. Note this “brings its total to 18 sites globally.” (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zoom-singapore-data-centr…)

From experience living in Singapore it is very likely a large portion of the cost was funded by the government in exchange for the good global press, inflow of revenue and job creation.

This is clearly not just a data center:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/zoom-opens-data-c…

“Zoom plans to hire an unspecified number of engineers and sales staff and offer new services such as Zoom Phone to scale the business in the region, Abe Smith, Zoom’s head of international, said during a virtual briefing on Tuesday.”

P.S. For those who do not know the region well, Singapore is not at all part of China. It is a City State at the tip of Malaysia across the water from Indonesia. Singapore has some of the highest IP protection and lowest corruption ratings in SE Asia. They are extremely pro-business. I lived there and Indonesia for 3.5 years. This is a good spot for them to operate from (except for the cost of rent!).

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I bring this to the attention of the board because of the implied CapEx of Zoom continuing to build its own data centers. I didn’t know they were still doing this. We could see a one-time impact on GM, or ongoing if they keep doing this. Or this could just be baked in to ongoing expansion and we may not notice it at all. Note this “brings its total to 18 sites globally.” (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zoom-singapore-data-centr…)

I’ve been wondering, generally, whether the costs associated with products/services announced by Zoom since its last earnings report might adversely impact its earnings report this next time around. Seems most are expecting another fantastic quarter, but the “market” is not always kind if the report isn’t “perfect.”