DayOne weighs Singapore-US dual IPO worth up to $5bn

Data-centre operator DayOne is weighing a Singapore-US dual initial public offering that could raise about US$5 billion and value the company at roughly US$20 billion, Reuters reported. At that size, it would rank among the largest new equity offerings tied to AI infrastructure this year — and for investors, the deal offers a clean read on whether data-centre demand can support a cross-border listing instead of a US-only float.

The Straits Times and The Business Times separately reported the company was looking at Singapore and the US as listing venues. Venue choice is not a footnote here. Bankers are asking a single question: where does an AI-linked infrastructure company think it can command the deepest demand while keeping its Asian investor base intact.

In Singapore the strategic case is straightforward. Reuters said DayOne examined the Singapore Exchange alongside Nasdaq, and SGX’s proposed Global Listing Board targets companies with a minimum market value of US$2 billion. A US$20 billion valuation clears that threshold ten times over. For SGX the prize is a flagship technology-infrastructure float, not another mid-tier regional offering.

Nasdaq, by contrast, still holds the valuation template most data-centre sponsors want public investors to apply. Buyers there are comfortable paying for scale before earnings are fully visible — especially when the company can point to AI demand, power access and long-dated customer contracts. A dual structure lets DayOne test whether it can preserve that valuation language while tapping Singapore capital at the same time. Singapore gives the deal proximity to Asian pools of money and explicit policy support for digital infrastructure. The US offers deeper specialist growth accounts and a wider universe of technology comparables. Pursuing both at once sends a clear signal: DayOne and its advisers do not want a single valuation constituency to set the price on a deal this large.

Funding read-through

Recent fundraising explains why the company can even consider that structure. DayOne raised US$2 billion in a January Series C round, Reuters reported, setting a private-market marker before any public filing. That kind of raise does not guarantee IPO demand. It does, however, reduce the pressure to rush and gives sponsors room to wait for terms that match the current mood around AI infrastructure.

The private round also sharpens the public-market test. Prospective buyers would not simply be assessing a new issue on its own terms. They would be deciding whether public markets are prepared to validate the pricing logic that private capital accepted only months earlier. That hurdle looks higher with the broader IPO backdrop still uneven and buyers selective about which large offerings they will absorb.

Comparable listed names show why public investors may push hard on valuation. Yahoo Finance data for GDS Holdings put the market capitalisation at about US$8.50 billion — far below the US$20 billion valuation Reuters cited for DayOne. The comparison is imperfect: geography, lease profiles and customer mix all differ. Still, it frames the central question. Would investors pay a premium for capacity tied to AI workloads before the wider IPO market has fully reopened?

AI demand carries much of that argument. Data-centre groups have sold investors on scarcity — power, land, contracted capacity — even as the broader new-issue calendar reopened only in patches. Outside a handful of hot sectors, that pricing confidence has been harder to find. If bankers think those traits cross borders, a DayOne float becomes a test case for whether AI infrastructure sits in a different capital-markets bucket from ordinary property or industrial issuance.

Winning even a slice of a deal this size would tell markets Singapore can compete for technology-infrastructure listings beyond smaller industrial and real estate names. The more commercial test sits with US investors: if DayOne reaches market near the reported terms, buyers would be underwriting whether AI-linked data-centre demand deserves a premium big enough to support one of the year’s largest cross-border offerings. No filing has appeared. The US$5 billion target alone, though, already tells bankers where one corner of the IPO market thinks pricing power sits.