Csquare Inc. raised US$1.05 billion after pricing its initial public offering below a marketed range on Wednesday.

The data-centre company backed by Brookfield Corp. sold 50 million shares for US$21 each, according to a statement Wednesday confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Csquare had marketed the shares for US$23 to US$27 apiece.

The pricing gives Csquare a market value of about US$3.25 billion, based on the number of outstanding shares listed in its filings.

Dallas-based Csquare began operations in 2019 and currently owns and operates more than 60 data centre sites in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the filings show. It expects to use the IPO proceeds for purposes including to repay in full its revolving credit facility, which had US$771 million outstanding at the end of June, as well as a US$75 million promissory note held by Brookfield.

Brookfield is expected to maintain voting control over Csquare after the offering, according to a filing prior to the IPO.

Csquare had a net loss of US$66 million in the three-month period ended March 31, along with revenue of US$270.5 million. That compares with the year-ago period, when it had a net loss of US$34.9 million on revenue of US$232.8 million. Most of the company’s revenue is generated from recurring colocation and interconnection services, with contracts ranging from one to seven years.

The IPO comes as Wall Street is laser-focused on all things related to artificial intelligence, especially AI infrastructure. It comes on the heels of SK Hynix Inc.’s US$26.5 billion U.S. listing last week, and AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems Inc., whose May listing raised US$6.38 billion.

Blackstone Inc.’s data-centre acquisition vehicle raised US$2 billion the same month, and SpaceX made history in June with the biggest IPO of all time. The Elon Musk-led rocket and satellite company has pitched operating data centres in space.

Csquare’s offering was led by Morgan Stanley, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia. The company is expected to make its debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CSQR.

—With assistance from Dave Sebastian.

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Bloomberg.com