Equinix has launched a new network of “Enhanced Performance Innovation Centers” (EPIC), including a site in Sydney, aimed at helping enterprises test and validate liquid-cooled, high-density AI infrastructure before larger deployments.
In a media release dated October 22, 2026, the company said EPIC environments are designed to let organisations trial liquid-cooled GPU and CPU platforms and run AI training and inference workloads under “real-world conditions” inside live Equinix data centres. Initial EPIC locations are in Sydney, Frankfurt, London, Osaka and Paris, with further expansion planned for 2027.
The move comes as organisations shift AI projects from pilot phases into production, driving demand for higher GPU density and more power per rack—requirements that can make liquid cooling a necessity rather than an optimisation. Equinix said many enterprises face challenges integrating cooling systems with power, networking and operational processes, and that gaps in any of those areas can delay deployment.
Brian Stein, Senior Vice President, Infrastructure Products and Services at Equinix, said in a statement that liquid cooling has become “an essential component of modern enterprise infrastructure” for AI deployments, and that EPIC is intended to give customers a place to test and validate systems before committing to large-scale rollouts.
Equinix said EPIC builds on earlier initiatives, including a Co-Innovation Facility announced in 2022 and Solution Validation Centers introduced in 2024, extending the model specifically to liquid cooling and high-density AI deployments.
Matthieu Blumberg, SVP of Engineering Infrastructure, Security, Internal IT & CISO at Criteo, said the company used a step-by-step approach to build confidence in liquid cooling, and emphasised the need for consistent performance across distributed infrastructure.
