Part III – Portions of the registrant's definitive proxy statement to be issued in conjunction with the registrant's 20222024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which is expected to be filed not later than 120 days after the registrant's fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.2023. Except as expressly incorporated by reference, the registrant's proxy statement shall not be deemed to be a part of this report on Form 10-K.

Our customers include telecommunications carriers, mobile and other network services providers, cloud and IT services providers, digital media and content providers, financial services companies, and global enterprise ecosystems in various industries. We provide each company access to a choice of business partners and solutions based on their colocation, interconnection and managed IT service needs, and delivered 99.999%+ operational uptime across our global data centers in 2021.2023. As of December 31, 2021,2023, we had over 10,000 customers worldwide. No one customer made up 10% or more of our total business revenues for the year ended December 31, 2021.2023.

We currently operate in three reportable segments comprised of our Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific geographic regions. Information attributable to each of our reportable segments is set forth in Note 17 within the Consolidated Financial Statements.

You may also obtain copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to such reports, free of charge by visiting the Investor Relations page on our website, www.equinix.com. These reports are available as soon as reasonably practical after we file them with the SEC. Information contained on or accessible through our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We have continuously monitored our global operations as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe and as variants and vaccines have developed. We have implemented procedures focusing on the health and safetyInflation is impacting various aspects of our employees,business. We are also experiencing an increase in our costs to procure power and supply chain issues globally. Rising prices for materials related to our IBX data center construction and our data center offerings, energy and gas prices, as well as rising wages and benefits costs negatively impact our business by increasing our operating costs. Further, disagreement in the U.S. Congress on government spending levels could increase the possibility of a government shutdown, further adversely affecting global economic conditions. The adverse economic conditions we are currently experiencing may cause a decrease in sales as some customers partnersmay need to take cost cutting measures or scale back their operations. This could result in churn in our customer base, reductions in revenues from our offerings, adverse effects to our days of sales outstanding in accounts receivable ("DSO"), longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies and communities,increased price competition, which could adversely affect our liquidity. Customers and vendors filing for bankruptcy could also lead to costly and time-intensive actions with adverse effects, including greater difficulty or delay in accounts receivable collection. The uncertain economic environment could also have an impact on our foreign exchange forward contracts if our counterparties' credit deteriorates or if they are otherwise unable to perform their obligations. Further, volatility in the continuityfinancial markets and rising interest rates like we are currently experiencing could affect our ability to access the capital markets at a time when we desire, or need, to do so which could have an impact on our flexibility to pursue additional expansion opportunities and maintain our desired level of revenue growth in the future.

In each of our business offeringsmarkets, we rely on third parties, third party infrastructure, governments, and compliance with governmental regulations and local public health guidance and ordinances. We have activated our business continuity and pandemic plans and while our business operations have continued without interruption andglobal suppliers to provide a sufficient amount of power to maintain our IBX data centers have remained fully operationaland meet the needs of our current and future customers. Any limitation on the delivered energy supply could limit our ability to date, we cannot guarantee our business operations oroperate our IBX data centers. These limitations could have a negative impact on a given IBX data center(s) or limit our ability to grow our business which could negatively affect our financial performance and results of operations.

Each new facility requires access to significant quantities of electricity. Limitations on generation, transmission and distribution may limit our ability to obtain sufficient power capacity for potential expansion sites in new or existing markets. Utility companies may impose onerous operating conditions to any approval or provision of power or we may experience significant delays and substantial increased costs to provide the level of electrical service required by our current or future IBX data center designs. Our ability to find appropriate sites for expansion may also be limited by access to power, especially as we design our data centers will not be negatively impacted into the future. specifications of new and evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence which are more power-intensive.

Our IBX data centers have been designated “essential businesses”are affected by problems accessing electricity sources, such as planned or “critical infrastructure” for purposesunplanned power outages and limitations on transmission or distribution of remaining open during the COVID-19 pandemic in all of the jurisdictions that have published these exemptionspower. Unplanned power outages, including, but not all jurisdictions have created such designations. Any change in these classifications could cause operational disruptions or closures of the affected IBX data centers.

mandateinfrastructure, war, and any failures of electrical power grids more generally, and planned power outages by public utilities, such as Pacific Gas and Electric Company's practice of planned outages in California to minimize fire risks, could harm our customers and our business. Employees working from home could be subjected to power outages at home which could be difficult to track and could affect the day-to-day operations of our non-IBX data center employees. Our international operations are sometimes located outside of developed, reliable electricity markets, where we are exposed to some insecurity in supply associated with technical and regulatory problems, as well as transmission constraints. Some of our IBX data centers are located in leased buildings where, depending upon the lease requirements and number of tenants involved, we may or may not control some or all of the infrastructure including generators and fuel tanks. As a result, in the event of a power outage, we could be dependent upon the landlord, as well as the utility company, to restore the power. We attempt to limit our exposure to system downtime by using backup generators, which are in turn supported by onsite fuel storage and through contracts with fuel suppliers, but these measures may not always prevent downtime or solve for all their U.S. employeeslong-term or large-scale outages. Any outage or supply disruption could adversely affect our business, customer experience and revenues.

We are currently experiencing inflation and volatility pressures in the energy market globally. Various macroeconomic factors are contributing to the instability and global power shortage including the Russia and Ukraine war, severe weather events, governmental regulations, government relations and inflation. While we have aimed to minimize our risk, via hedging, conservation, and other efficiencies, we expect the cost for power to continue to be fully vaccinatedvolatile and unpredictable and subject to inflationary pressures. We believe we have made appropriate estimates for these costs in our forecasting, but the current unpredictable energy market could materially affect our financial forecasting, results of operations and financial condition.

Additionally, various of Russia’s actions have led to sanctions and other penalties being levied by the U.S., the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries, as well as other public and private actors and companies, against COVID-19 (the “US Vaccine Mandate”). AsRussia and certain other geographic areas, including agreement to remove certain Russian financial institutions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication payment system and restrictions on imports of Russian oil, liquified natural gas and coal. We do not have operations in Russia or Ukraine and historically we have had a Government Contractor,limited number of Russian and Ukrainian customers, which we will be requiredcontinue to screen against applicable sanctions lists per our standard processes. Although we continue to devote resources to this screening effort, including the use of software solutions, the sanctions screening process remains partially manual, and the sanctions lists continue to evolve and vary by country. We continue to address necessary changes in global sanctions laws and modify our processes as necessary in light of these evolving laws. A material failure to comply with the US Vaccine Mandate if it or a similar vaccine mandate for Government Contractors goes into effect. We do not anticipate the US Vaccine Mandate toglobal sanctions laws could have a material negative effect on our reputation, business even if it goes into effect, but if we experience more employee turnover than we expect or if similar mandates are required in other regions, we could experience disruptions to certain functions and employee satisfaction could be affected.financial condition.

WhileIn addition to compliance with applicable sanctions laws, we are currently limiting the full extentability of Russian customers to place orders for our offerings unless, after reviewing these orders, we believe they are aligned with our stated objectives in support of Ukraine. We do not allow purchases from Russian partners or suppliers and impacthave committed to not make any direct or indirect investment in Russia absent an end to this conflict. In addition, for our customers located in Ukraine, we are currently providing offerings free of charge and may continue to do so in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic cannot be reasonably estimated at this time, itfuture.

The associated disruptions in the oil and gas markets have caused, and could continue to cause, significant increases in energy prices, which could have a material adverseeffect on our business. Additional potential sanctions and penalties have also been proposed and/or threatened. If Russia further reduces or turns off energy supplies to Europe, our EMEA operations could be adversely affected. Russian military actions and the resulting sanctions could further affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets, potentially making it more difficult for us to obtain additional debt or equity financing on attractive terms in the future.

In the case of the Middle East conflict, the current situation is extremely volatile. It is possible that such events will continue to adversely impact onthe level of economic activity globally and that we will face increased regulatory and legal complexities in the regions affected thus impacting our business and financial condition. The extent to which the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will impactemployees, our financial condition or

and results of operations will depend on many factors and future developments, including new information aboutoperations. Additionally, any sustained military action in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, additional surges in infection rates, vaccine efforts and any new government regulations which may emergearea of the Red Sea could contribute to contain the virus, among others.supply chain challenges.

As techniques used to breach security change frequently and are generally not recognized until launched against a target, we may not be able to promptly detect that a cyber breach has occurred, or implement security measures in a timely manner or, if and when implemented, we may not be able to determine the extent to which these measures could be circumvented. BecauseRecent developments in the cyber threat landscape include use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as an increased number of cyber extortion and ransomware attacks, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, manypotential for higher financial ransom demand amounts and increasing sophistication and variety of our non-IBX employees are working from homeransomware techniques and could potentially be exposed tomethodology. Further, any adoption of artificial intelligence by us or by third parties may pose new security risks or attempted breaches because of these new work environments. Our adaptation to a hybrid working model that includes both work from home and in an office could continue to expose us to new security risks.challenges. A party who is able to compromise the security measures on our networks or the security of our infrastructure could misappropriate eitherthe proprietary or sensitive information of Equinix, our proprietary informationcustomers, including government customers, or the personal information of our customers or our employees, or cause interruptions or malfunctions in our operations or our customers' operations. As we provide assurances to our customers that we provide a high level of security, such a compromise could be particularly harmful to our brand and reputation. We also may be required to expend significant capital and resources to protect against such threats or to alleviate problems caused by cyber breaches in security.our physical or virtual security systems. Any breaches that may occur in the future could expose us to increased risk of lawsuits, regulatory penalties, loss of existing or potential customers, damage relating to loss of proprietary information, harm to our reputation and increases in our security costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance and results of operations. The cybersecurity regulatory landscape continues to evolve and compliance with the proposed reporting requirements could further complicate our ability to resolve cyber-attacks. We maintain insurance coverage for cyber risks, but such coverage may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our losses.

Our business depends on providing customers with highly reliable solutions. We must safeguard our customers' infrastructure and equipment located in our IBX data centers and ensure our IBX data centers and non-IBX offices

business operations remain operational at all times. We own certain of our IBX data centers, but others are leased by us, and we rely on the landlord for basic maintenance of our leased IBX data centers and office buildings.buildings and, in some cases, the landlord is responsible for the infrastructure that runs the building such as power connections, UPSs and backup power generators. If such landlord has not maintained a leased property sufficiently, we may be forced into an early exit from the center which could be disruptive to our business. Furthermore, we continue to acquire IBX data centers not built by us. If we discover that these buildings and their infrastructure assets are not in the condition we expected when they were acquired, we may be required to incur substantial additional costs to repair or upgrade the IBX data centers. Newly acquired data centers also may not have the same power infrastructure and design in place as our own IBX data centers. These legacy designs could require upgrades in order to meet our standards and our customers’ expectations. Until the legacy systems are brought up to our standards, customers in these legacy IBX data centers could be exposed to higher risks of unexpected power outages. We have experienced power outages because of these legacy design issues in the past and our customerswe could experience these in the future.

Problems at one or more of our IBX data centers or corporate offices, whether or not within our control, could result in service interruptions or significant infrastructure or equipment damage. These could result from numerous factors, including but not limited to:

We have service level commitment obligations to certain customers. As a result, service interruptions or significant equipment damage in our IBX data centers could result in difficulty maintaining service level commitments to these customers and potential claims related to such failures. Because our IBX data centers are critical to many of our customers' businesses, service interruptions or significant equipment damage in our IBX data centers could also result in lost profits or other indirect or consequential damages to our customers. We cannot guarantee that a court would enforce any contractual limitations on our liability in the event that one of our customers brings a lawsuit against us as a result of a problem at one of our IBX data centers and we may decide to reach settlements with affected customers irrespective of any such contractual limitations. Any such settlement may result in a reduction of revenue under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). In addition, any loss of service, equipment damage or inability to meet our service level commitment obligations could reduce the confidence of our customers and could consequently impair our ability to obtain and retain customers, which would adversely affect both our ability to generate revenues and our results of operations.

Furthermore, we are dependent upon internet service providers, telecommunications carriers and other website operators in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions and elsewhere, some of which have experienced significant system failures and electrical outages in the past. Our customers may in the future experience difficulties due to system failures unrelated to our systems and offerings. If, for any reason, these providers fail to provide the required services, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.

Our IBX data center employees are critical to our ability to maintain our business operations and reach our service level commitments. Although we have redundancies built into our network,workforce, if our IBX employees are unable to access our IBX data centers for any reason, we could experience operational issues at the affected site. Pandemics, weather and climate related crises or any other social, political, or economic disruption in the U.S. or abroad could prevent sufficient staffing at our IBX data centers and have a material adverse impact on our operations.

We have been investing heavily in our back-office information technology systems and processes for a number of years and expect such investment to continue for the foreseeable future in support of our pursuit of global, scalable solutions across all geographies and functions that we operate in. These continuing investments include: 1) ongoing improvements to the customer experience from initial quote to customer billing and our revenue recognition process; 2) integration of recently-acquiredrecently acquired operations onto our various information technology systems; and 3) implementation of new tools and technologies to either further streamline and automate processes, or to support our compliance with evolving U.S. GAAP. Our finance team is also working on a multi-year project to move the backbone of our finance systems to the cloud. As a result of our continued work on these projects, we may experience difficulties with our systems, management distraction and significant business disruptions. For example, difficulties with our systems may interrupt our ability to accept and deliver customer orders and may adversely impact our overall financial operations, including our accounts payable, accounts receivables, general ledger, fixed assets, revenue recognition, close processes, internal financial controls and our ability to otherwise run and track our business. We may need to expend significant attention, time and resources to correct problems or find alternative sources for performing these functions. All of these changes to our financial systems also create an increased risk of deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting until such systems are stabilized. Such significant investments in our back-office systems may take longer to complete and cost more than originally planned. In addition, we may not realize the full benefits we hoped to achieve and there is a risk of an impairment charge if we decide that portions of these projects will not ultimately benefit us or are de-scoped. Finally, the collective impact of these changes to our business has placed significant demands on impacted employees across multiple functions, increasing the risk of errors and control deficiencies in our financial statements, distraction from the effective operation of our business and difficulty in attracting and retaining employees. Any such difficulties or disruptions may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We carry liability, property, business interruption and other insurance policies to cover insurable risks to our company. We select the types of insurance, the limits and the deductibles based on our specific risk profile, the cost of the insurance coverage versus its perceived benefit and general industry standards. Our insurance policies

In connection with the evolving needs of our customers and our business, we continue to review our organizational architecture and have made, and will continue to make, changes as appropriate. There can be no assurances that any of these changes will not result in attrition, that the significant amount of management and other employees' time and focus to implement the changes will not divert attention from operating and growing the business, or that any changes will result in increased organizational effectiveness. We must also continue to identify, hire, train and retain key personnel who maintain relationships with our customers and who can provide the technical, strategic and marketing skills required for our company's growth. There is a shortage of qualified personnel in these fields, and we compete with other companies for the limited pool of talent.

The failure to recruit and retain necessary key executives and personnel could cause disruption, harm our business and hamper our ability to grow our company.

While we own certain of our IBX data centers, others are leased under long-term arrangements. These leased IBX data centers have all been subject to significant development by us in order to convert them from, in most cases, vacant buildings or warehouses into IBX data centers. Most of our IBX data center leases have renewal options available to us. However, many of these renewal options provide for the rent to be set at then-prevailing market rates. To the extent that then-prevailing market rates or negotiated rates are higher than present rates, these higher costs may adversely impact our business and results of operations, or we may decide against renewing the lease. There may also be changes in shared operating costs in connection with our leases, which are commonly referred to as common area maintenance expenses. In the event that an IBX data center lease does not have a renewal option, or we fail to exercise a renewal option in a timely fashion and lose our right to renew the lease, we may not be successful in negotiating a renewal of the lease with the landlord. A failure to renew a lease or termination by a landlord of any lease could force us to exit a building prematurely, which could disrupt our business, harm our customer relationships, impact and harm our joint venture relationships, expose us to liability under our customer contracts or joint venture agreements, cause us to take impairment charges and affect our results of operations negatively.

The presence of diverse telecommunications carriers' fiber networks in our IBX data centers is critical to our ability to retain and attract new customers. We are not a telecommunications carrier, and as such, we rely on third parties to provide our customers with carrier services. We believe that the availability of carrier capacity will directly affect our ability to achieve our projected results. We rely primarily on revenue opportunities from the telecommunications carriers' customers to encourage them to invest the capital and operating resources required to connect from their data centers to our IBX data centers. Carriers will likely evaluate the revenue opportunity of an IBX data center based on the assumption that the environment will be highly competitive. We cannot provide assurance that each and every carrier will elect to offer its services within our IBX data centers or that once a carrier has decided to provide internet connectivity to our IBX data centers that it will continue to do so for any period of time.

Our new IBX data centers require construction and operation of a sophisticated redundant fiber network. The construction required to connect multiple carrier facilities to our IBX data centers is complex and involves factors outside of our control, including regulatory processes and the availability of construction resources. Any hardware or fiber failures on this network may result in significant loss of connectivity to our new IBX data center expansions. This could affect our ability to attract new customers to these IBX data centers or retain existing customers.

If the establishment of highly diverse internet connectivity to our IBX data centers does not occur, is materially delayed or is discontinued, or is subject to failure, our results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.

We derive revenues from contracts with the U.S. government, state and local governments and foreign governments. Some of these customers may terminate all or part of their contracts at any time, without cause. There is increased pressure for governments and their agencies, both domestically and internationally, to reduce spending. Some of our federal government contracts are subject to the approval of appropriations being made by the U.S. Congress to fund the expenditures under these contracts. Similarly, some of our contracts at the state and local levels are subject to government funding authorizations.

Government contracts often have unique terms and conditions, such as most favored customer obligations, and are generally subject to audits and investigations which could result in various civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of contracts, refund of a portion of fees received, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from future government business.

Our ability to maximize revenues depends on our ability to develop and grow a balanced customer base, consisting of a variety of companies, including enterprises, cloud, digital content and financial companies, and network service providers. We consider certain of these customers to be key magnets in that they draw in other customers. The more balanced the customer base within each IBX data center, the better we will be able to generate significant interconnection revenues, which in turn increases our overall revenues. Our ability to attract customers to our IBX data centers will depend on a variety of factors, including the presence of multiple carriers, the mix of our offerings, the overall mix of customers, the presence of key customers attracting business through vertical market ecosystems, the IBX data center's operating reliability and security and our ability to effectively market our offerings. However, some of our customers may face competitive pressures and may ultimately not be successful or may be consolidated through merger or acquisition. If these customers do not continue to use our IBX data centers it may be disruptive to our business. If customers combine businesses, they may require less colocation space, which could lead to churn in our customer base. Finally, any uncertain global economic climate, including the one we are currently experiencing, as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could harm our ability to attract and retain customers if customers slow spending, or delay decision-making on our offerings, or if customers begin to have difficulty paying us or seek bankruptcy protection and we experience increased churn in our customer base. Any of these factors may hinder

the development, growth and retention of a balanced customer base and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Any of the foregoing factors, or other factors discussed elsewhere in this report, could have a material adverse effect on our business, model.results of operations and financial condition. Although we have experienced growth in revenues in recent quarters, this growth rate is not necessarily indicative of future results of operations. It is possible that we may not be able to generate net income on a quarterly or annual basis in the future. In addition, a relatively large portion of our expenses are fixed in the short-term, particularly with respect to lease and personnel expenses, depreciation and amortization and interest expenses. Therefore, our results of operations are particularly sensitive to fluctuations in revenues. As such, comparisons to prior reporting periods should not be relied upon as indications of our future performance. In addition, our results of operations in one or more future quarters may fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors.

Our business could be harmed by increased costs to procure power, prolonged power outages, shortagesof the goodwill or capacity constraints.other intangible assets and the implied fair value of the goodwill or other intangible assets in the period the determination is made.

Any power outages, shortages, capacity constraintsWe also periodically monitor the remaining net book values of our property, plant and equipment, including at the individual IBX data center level. Although each individual IBX data center is currently performing in accordance with our expectations, the possibility that one or more IBX data centers could begin to under-perform relative to our expectations is possible and may also result in non-cash impairment charges.

These charges could be significant, increase in the cost of power maywhich could have ana material adverse effect on our business, and our results of operations.

In order to sustain our growth in certain of our existing and new markets, we may have to expand an existing data center, lease a new facility or acquire suitable land, with or without structures, to build new IBX data centers from the ground up. Expansions or new builds are currently underway, or being contemplated, in many of ournew and existing markets. These construction projects expose us to many risks which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,current global supply chain issues and inflation issues have

We are currently experiencing rising construction costs which reflect the increase in cost of labor and raw materials, supply chain and logistic challenges, and high demand in our sector. While we have invested in creating a material inventoryreserve of materials to mitigate supply chain issues and inflation, it may not be sufficient and ongoing delays,

difficulty finding replacement products and continued high inflation could affect our business and growth and could have a material effect on our business. Additional or unexpected disruptions to our supply chain, including in the event of any sustained regional escalation of the current conflict in the Middle East in the area around the Red Sea or more broadly, or inflationary pressures could significantly affect the cost of our planned expansion projects and interfere with our ability to meet commitments to customers who have contracted for space in new IBX data centers under construction.

Construction projects are dependent on permitting from public agencies and utility companies. Any delay in permitting could affect our growth. We are currently experiencing permitting delays in most metros due to reduced production from labor availability and from other COVID-19 pandemic related permitting restrictions or stoppages.availability. While we don't currently anticipate any material long-term negative impact to our business because of these construction delays, these types of delays and stoppages related to permitting from public agencies and utility companies could worsen and have an adverse effect on our bookings, revenue or growth.

Additionally, all construction related projects require us to carefully select and rely on the experience of one or more designers, general contractors, and associated subcontractors during the design and construction process. Should a designer, general contractor, significant subcontractor or key supplier experience financial problems or other problems during the design or construction process, we could experience significant delays, increased costs to complete the project and/or other negative impacts to our expected returns.

Site selection is also a critical factor in our expansion plans. There may not be suitable properties available in our markets with the necessary combination of high-power capacity and fiber connectivity, or selection may be limited. We expect that we will continue to experience limited availability of power and grid constraints in many markets as well as shortages of associated equipment because of the current high demands and finite nature of these resources. These shortages could result in site selection challenges, construction delays or increased costs. Thus, while we may prefer to locate new IBX data centers adjacent to our existing locations, it may not always be possible. In the event we decide to build new IBX data centers separate from our existing IBX data centers, we may provide metro connect solutions to connect these two IBX data centers. Should these solutions not provide the necessary reliability to sustain connection, or if they do not meet the needs of our customers, this could result in lower interconnection revenue and lower margins and could have a negative impact on customer retention over time.

Over the last several years, we have completed numerous acquisitions, including most recently that of five data centers in Peru and Chile from Entel in 2022, MainOne in West Africa in 2022, and GPX Global System's,Systems, Inc.'s India operations in September 2021, certain data centers from BCE Inc. ("Bell") in Canada in the fourth quarter of 2020, Packet in March 2020, and three data centers from Axtel S.A.B. de C.V. ("Axtel") in Mexico in January 2020. In 2021 we also announced our intention to acquire MainOne, a leading West African data center and connectivity solutions provider, with operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.2021. We expect to make additional acquisitions in the future, which may include (i) acquisitions of businesses, products, solutions or technologies that we believe to be complementary, (ii) acquisitions of new IBX data centers or real estate for

The occurrence of any of these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. If an acquisition does not proceed or is materially delayed for any reason, the price of our common stock may be adversely impacted, and we will not recognize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition.

We cannot assure that the price of any future acquisitions of IBX data centers or businesses will be similar to prior IBX data center acquisitions.acquisitions and businesses. In fact, we expect costs required to build or render new IBX data centers operational to increase in the future. If our revenue does not keep pace with these potential acquisition and expansion costs, we may not be able to maintain our current or expected margins as we absorb these additional expenses. There is no assurance we would successfully overcome these risks, or any other problems encountered with these acquisitions.

We have entered into joint ventures to develop and operate xScale™ data centers (together, the(the “Joint Ventures”). Equinix owns a 20% interest and our JV partners own an 80% interest in each joint venture, and Equinix operates all facilities.

In addition to our current and proposed Joint Ventures, we may co-invest with other third parties through partnerships, joint ventures or other entities in the future. These joint ventures could result in our acquisition of non-controlling interests in, or shared responsibility for, managing the affairs of a property or portfolio of properties, partnership, joint venture or other entity. We may be subject to additional risks, including:

Each of these factors may result in returns on these investments being less than we expect or in losses, and our financial and results of operations may be adversely affected.

For the years ended December 31, 2021, 20202023, 2022 and 2019,2021, we recognized approximately 61%63%, 59%61% and 58%61%, respectively, of our revenues outside the U.S. We currently operate outside of the U.S. in Canada, Mexico, South America, the Asia-Pacific and EMEA.

Geo-political events, such asFurther, if we cannot effectively manage the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, the Hong Kong national security law, the trade war between the U.S. and China and Russian and Ukraine tensions, may increase the likelihood of the listed risks to occur and could have a negative effect on our business domestically or internationally. With respect to Brexit, it is possible that the level of economic activity in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe will be adversely impacted and that we will face increased regulatory and legal complexities in these regions which could have an adverse impact on our business and employees in EMEA and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, compliancechallenges associated with international and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations increasesand expansion plans, we could experience a delay in our cost of doing business in foreign jurisdictions. These lawsexpansion projects or a failure to grow. Expansion challenges and regulations include the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") and other data privacy laws and requirements, labor relations laws, tax laws, anti-competition regulations, import and trade restrictions, export requirements, economic and trade sanctions, U.S. laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and local laws which also prohibit corrupt payments to governmental officials. With respect to the current trade war between the U.S. and China, we have several customers in China named in restrictive executive orders by the previous U.S. administration that are currently covered by a freeze issued by the current U.S. administration or currently enjoined from enforcement subject to pending litigation. If Equinix is required to cease business with these companies, or additional companies in the future, our revenues could be adversely affected. Violations of any of these domestic or international laws and regulations could result in fines, criminal sanctions against us, our officers or our employees, and prohibitions on the conduct of our business. Any such violations could include prohibitions on our ability to offer our offerings in one or more countries, could delay or prevent potential acquisitions, andoperations failures could also materially damage our reputation, our brand, our international expansion efforts, our ability to attract and retain employees, our business and results of operations. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to anticipate and address these risks and manage these difficulties.

We are considering the acquisition or lease of additional properties and the construction of new IBX data centers beyond those expansion projects already announced. We will be required to commit substantial operational and financial resources to these IBX data centers, generally 12 to 18 months in advance of securing customer contracts, and we may not have sufficient customer demand in those markets to support these IBX data centers once they are built. In addition, unanticipated technological changes could affect customer requirements for data

Our capital expenditures, together with ongoing operating expenses, obligations to service our debt and the cash outlays associated with our REIT distribution requirements, are, and will continue to be, a substantial burden on our cash flow and may decrease our cash balances. Additional debt or equity financing may not be available when needed or, if available, may not be available on satisfactory terms. Our inability to obtain additional debt and/or equity financing or to generate sufficient cash from operations may require us to prioritize projects or curtail capital expenditures which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our derivative transactions expose us to risk of financial loss if a counterparty fails to perform under a derivative contract. Disruptions in the financial markets could lead to sudden decreases in a counterparty's liquidity, which could make them unable to perform under the terms of their derivative contract and we may not be able to realize the benefit of the derivative contract.

We are subject to various federal, state local and internationallocal environmental and health and safety laws and regulations in the United States and at our non-U.S. locations, including those relating to the generation, storage, handling and

disposal of hazardous substances and wastes. Certain of these laws and regulations also impose joint and several liability, without regard to fault, for investigation and cleanup costs on current and former owners and operators of real property and persons who have disposed of or released hazardous substances into the environment. Our operations involve the use of hazardous substances and other regulated materials such as petroleum fuel for emergency generators, as well as batteries, cleaning solutions, refrigerants and other materials. In addition, we lease, own or operate real property at which hazardous substances and regulated materials have been used in the past. At some of our locations, hazardous substances or regulated materials are known to be present in soil or groundwater, and there may be additional unknown hazardous

We purchase significant amounts of electricity from generating facilities and utility companies. These facilities and utility companies that are subject to environmental laws, regulations, permit requirements and permit requirements. These environmental requirements arepolicy decisions that could be subject to material change, which could result in increases in our electricity suppliers' compliance costs that may be passed through to us. Regulations promulgated by the U.S. EPA or state agencies, or by regulators in other countries, could limit air emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, restrict discharges of cooling water, limit the availability of potable water and otherwise impose new operational restraints on conventional power plants that could increase costs of electricity. Regulatory programs intended to promote increased generation of electricity from renewable sources may also increase our costs of procuring electricity. In addition, we are directly subject to environmental, health and safety laws regulating air emissions, storm water management and other issuesenvironmental matters arising in our business. For example, our emergency generators are subject to state, federal and federalcountry-specific regulations governing air pollutants, which could limit the operation of those generators or require the installation of new pollution control technologies. While environmental regulations do not normally impose material costs upon our operations, unexpected events, equipment malfunctions, human error and changes in law or regulations, among other factors, can lead to additional capital requirements, limitations upon our operations and unexpected increased costs.

Regulation of GHGgreenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions could increase our costs of doing business, for example by increasing the cost of electricity produced by reducing amounts of electricitymore GHG-intensive means (e.g., generated from fossil fuels, by requiringfuels), which could require the use of more expensive generating methods, by requiring capture, management or reduction of GHG emissions (e.g., carbon dioxide capture), or by imposing taxes or fees upon electricity generation or use. ThereGHG emissions. In recent years, there has been interest in the U.S. Congress and in countries where we operate abroad in regulating GHG emissions and otherwise addressing risks related to climate change. InFor example, in the U.S., we believe there is a likelihood that new regulations and legislation have been proposed or legislation will be proposed and potentially enacted during the Biden Administration that would seeklimit or otherwise seeks to limitdiscourage carbon dioxide emissions and the use of fossil fuels. Past legislative proposals to address climate changeSuch regulations and legislation have included or may in the future include measures ranging from direct regulation of GHG emissions to "carbon taxes," and tax incentives to tax credits, to federally imposed limitationspromote the development and use of renewable energy and otherwise lower GHG emissions. Other countries in which we operate may also impose requirements and restrictions on GHG emissions. The course of future legislation and regulation in the U.S. and abroad remains difficult to predict and the potential increased costs associated with GHG regulation or taxes cannot be estimated at this time.

We have prioritized sustainability and have establishedESG objectives, including long term goals of usingprocuring 100% clean and renewable energy coverage and reducing our GHG emissions from our operations and supply chain. We also face pressure from our customers, stockholders and stockholders,other stakeholders, such as the communities in which we operate, who are increasingly focused on climate change, to prioritize renewable energy procurement, reduce our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices. To address these goals and concerns, where possible, we plan to continue to scale our renewable energy strategy, seek low-carbon alternatives for traditional fuel sources, anduse refrigerants that pose fewer risks of environmental impact, and pursue opportunities to improve energy and water efficiency. As a result of these and other initiatives, we intend to make progress towards reducing our environmental impact and global carbon footprint, meet our public climate related commitments, as well as ensuring that our business remains viable in a low-carbon economy.

We are a U.S. company with global subsidiaries and are subject to income and other taxes in the U.S. (although currently limited due to our taxation as a REIT) and many foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income and other taxes. Although we believe that we have adequately assessed and accounted for our potential tax liabilities, and that our tax estimates are reasonable, there can be no certainty that additional taxes will not be due upon audit of our tax returns or as a result of changes to the tax laws and interpretations thereof. For example, we are currently undergoing audits and appealing the tentative assessments in a number of jurisdictions where we operate. The final results of these audits and the outcomes of the appeals are uncertain and may not be resolved in our favor. Additionally, the U.S. Congress and the current presidential administration of the U.S. have proposed various changes to federal income tax laws, including a potential minimum tax as well as changes to the laws governing the U.S. taxation of foreign earned income under the GILTI (Global Intangible Low Taxed Income) rules. It is unclear whether REITs might be exempt from the final legislation. Changes in tax laws, including the addition of a minimum tax threshold and to the GILTI rules, could have a material adverse effect on our tax liability and increase our REIT dividend distribution meaningfully.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased spending by many governments.governments in the past years. Because of this, there could be pressure to increase taxes in the future to pay back debts and generate revenues. The nature and timing of any future changes to each jurisdiction's tax laws and the impact on our future tax liabilities because of the COVID-19 pandemic or for any other reason cannot be predicted with any accuracy, but could materially and adversely impact our results of operations and financial position or cash flows.

We remain focused on whethermaintain a complex global organizational structure, containing numerous legal entities of varied types and how existingserving various purposes, in each country in which we operate. For example, to maintain our qualification for taxation as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we use TRSs and changing laws, suchqualified REIT subsidiaries ("QRSs") in order to segregate our income between net income from real estate and net income from other non-real estate activities. This results in significantly more entities than we might otherwise utilize if we were not having to maintain our qualification for taxation as those governing intellectual property, privacy, libel, telecommunications services, data flows/data localization, carbon emissions impact, competitiona REIT in the U.S.

We elected to be taxed as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes beginning with our 2015 taxable year. We believe that our organization and method of operation comply with the rules and regulations promulgated under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"), such that we will continue to qualify for taxation as a REIT. However, we cannot assure you that we have qualified for taxation as a REIT or that we will remain so qualified. Qualification for taxation as a REIT involves the application of highly technical and complex provisions of the Code to our operations as well as various factual determinations concerning matters and circumstances not entirely within our control. There are limited judicial or administrative interpretations of applicable REIT provisions of the Code.

Any such corporate tax liability could be substantial and would reduce the amount of cash available for other purposes. If we fail to remain qualified for taxation as a REIT, we may need to borrow additional funds or liquidate some investments to pay any additional tax liability. Accordingly, funds available for investment and distributions to stockholders could be reduced.

To remain qualified for taxation as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we must satisfy tests concerning, among other things, the sources of our income, the nature and diversification of our assets and the amounts we distribute to our stockholders. For example, under the Code, no more than 20% of the value of the assets of a REIT may be represented by securities of one or more TRSs. Similar rules apply to other nonqualifying assets. These limitations may affect our ability to make large investments in other non-REIT qualifying operations or assets. In addition, in order to maintain our qualification for taxation as a REIT, we must distribute at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends paid deduction and excluding any net capital gains. Even if we maintain our qualification for taxation as a REIT, we will be subject to U.S. federal income tax at regular corporate income tax rates for our undistributed REIT taxable income, as well as U.S. federal income tax at regular corporate income tax rates for income recognized by our TRSs; we also pay taxes in the foreign jurisdictions in which our international assets and operations are held and conducted regardless of our qualification for taxation as a REIT. Because of these distribution requirements, we will likely not be able to fund future capital needs and investments from operating cash flow. As such, compliance with REIT tests may hinder our ability to make certain attractive investments, including the purchase of significant nonqualifying assets and the material expansion of non-real estate activities.

Our operations utilize TRSs to facilitate our qualification for taxation as a REIT. The Codenet income of our TRSs is not included in our REIT taxable income unless it is distributed by an applicable TRS, and income that is not included in our REIT taxable income generally limits interest deductions for businesses, whether in corporate or passthrough form,is not subject to the sum of the taxpayer's business interestREIT income for the tax year and 30% of the taxpayer's adjusted taxable income for that tax year. This limitation does not apply to an "electing real property trade or business". Although REITs are permitted to make such an election, we have not made such an election to date. If we so elect in the future, depreciable real property that we hold (including specified improvements) would be required to be depreciated for U.S. federal income tax purposes under the alternative depreciation system of the Code, which generally imposes a class life for depreciable real property as long as 40 years.

The Code imposes limitations on the ability of our TRSs to utilize specified income tax deductions, including limits on the use of net operating losses and limits on the deductibility of interest expense.

Even if we remain qualified for taxation as a REIT, we may be subject to some federal, state, local and foreign taxes, including taxes on any undistributed income, and state, local or foreign income, franchise, property and transfer taxes. In addition, we could in certain circumstances be required to pay an excise or penalty tax, which could be significant in amount, in respect of dealer property income or in order to utilize one or more relief provisions under the Code to maintain our qualification for taxation as a REIT.

A portion of our business is conducted through wholly-ownedwholly owned TRSs because certain of our business activities could generate nonqualifying REIT income as currently structured and operated. The income of our U.S. TRSs will continue to be subject to federal and state corporate income taxes. In addition, our international assets and operations will continue to be subject to taxation in the foreign jurisdictions where those assets are held or those operations are conducted. Any of these taxes would decrease our earnings and our available cash.

We will also be subject to a U.S. federal corporate level income tax at the highest regular corporate income tax rate on gain recognized from a sale of a REIT asset where our basis in the asset is determined by reference to the basis of the asset in the hands of a C corporation (such as an asset that we or our QRSs hold following the liquidation or other conversion of a former TRS). This tax is generally applicable to any disposition of such an asset during the five-year period after the date we first owned the asset as a REIT asset, to the extent of the built-in-gain based on the fair market value of such asset on the date we first held the asset as a REIT asset.

In order for us to remain qualified for taxation as a REIT, no more than 50% of the value of outstanding shares of our stock may be owned, beneficially or constructively, by five or fewer individuals at any time during the last half of each taxable year. In addition, rents from "affiliated tenants" will not qualify as qualifying REIT income if we own 10% or more by vote or value of the customer, whether directly or after application of attribution rules under the Code. Subject to certain exceptions, our certificate of incorporation prohibits any stockholder from owning, beneficially or constructively, more than (i) 9.8% in value of the outstanding shares of all classes or series of our capital stock or (ii) 9.8% in value or number, whichever is more restrictive, of the outstanding shares of any class or series of our capital stock. We refer to these restrictions collectively as the "ownership limits" and we included them in our certificate of incorporation to facilitate our compliance with REIT tax rules. The constructive ownership rules under the Code are complex and may cause the outstanding stock owned by a group of related individuals or entities to be deemed to be constructively owned by one individual or entity. As a result, the acquisition of less than 9.8% of our outstanding common stock (or the outstanding shares of any class or series of our stock) by an individual or entity could cause that individual or entity or another individual or entity to own constructively in excess of the relevant ownership limits. Any attempt to own or transfer shares of our common stock or of any of our other capital stock in violation of these restrictions may result in the shares being automatically transferred to a charitable trust or may be void. Even though our certificate of incorporation contains the ownership limits, there can be no assurance that these provisions will be effective to prevent our qualification for taxation as a REIT from being jeopardized, including under the affiliated tenant rule. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that we will be able to monitor and enforce the ownership limits. If the restrictions in our certificate of incorporation are not effective and, as a result, we fail to satisfy the REIT tax rules described above, then absent an applicable relief provision, we will fail to remain qualified for taxation as a REIT.

In addition, the ownership and transfer restrictions could delay, defer or prevent a transaction or a change in control that might involve a premium price for our stock or otherwise be in the best interest of our stockholders. As a result, the overall effect of the ownership and transfer restrictions may be to render more difficult or discourage any attempt to acquire us, even if such acquisition may be favorable to the interests of our stockholders.

AdverseWe continuously monitored our global economic conditions likeoperations in light of the onesCOVID-19 pandemic. We implemented procedures focusing on the health and safety of our employees, customers, partners and communities, the continuity of our business offerings and compliance with governmental regulations and local public health guidance and ordinances. While our business operations continued without interruption and our IBX data centers remained fully operational to date, we are currently experiencing because of global inflation, the increased cost of power, and supply chain issues have created, andcannot guarantee our business operations or our IBX data centers will not be negatively impacted in the future may increase, riskbecause of another pandemic, including one related to our financial outlook. We are experiencing these issues in various aspects of our business. As discussed above, our efforts to mitigate the risks associated with these global economic conditions may not be successful and our business and growth could be adversely affected.

The market price of the shares of our common stock has recently been and may continue to be highly volatile. General economic and market conditions, like the instability due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,ones we are currently experiencing, and market conditions for telecommunications, data center and REIT stocks in general, may affect the market price of our common stock.

Announcements by us or others, or speculations about our future plans, may also have a significant impact on the market price of our common stock. These may relate to:

The stock market has from time to timetime-to-time experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations, which have particularly affected the market prices for telecommunications companies, and which have often been unrelated to their operating performance. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. One of the factors that investors may consider in deciding whether to buy or sell our common stock is our distribution rate as a percentage of our stock price relative to market interest rates. If market interest rates increase, prospective investors may demand a higher distribution rate or seek alternative investments paying higher dividends or interest. As a result, interest rate fluctuations and conditions in the capital markets may affect the market value of our common stock. Furthermore, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and/or damages, and divert management's attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.

Our financial forecasts are dependent on estimates and assumptions regarding budget and planning data, market growth, foreign exchange rates, our ability to remain qualified for taxation as a REIT, and our ability to generate sufficient cash flow to reinvest in the business, fund internal growth, make acquisitions, pay dividends and meet our debt obligations. Our financial projections are based on historical experience and on various other assumptions that our management believes to be reasonable under the circumstances and at the time they are made.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a material effect on many aspects of the economy, but the extent of its impact on Equinix is difficult to predict at this time. We continue to evolve our forecasting models as the situation unfoldsnecessary and appropriate but if our predictions are inaccurate and our results differ materially from our forecasts, we could make inappropriate financial decisions. Additionally, inaccuracies in our models could adversely impact our compliance with REIT asset tests, future profitability, stock price and/or stockholder confidence.

Our most recent evaluation of our controls resulted in our conclusion that, as of December 31, 2020,2022, in compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, our internal controls over financial reporting were effective. Our ability to manage our operations and growth through, for example, the integration of recently acquired businesses, the adoption of new accounting principles and tax laws, and our overhaul of our back officeback-office systems that, for example, support the customer experience from initial quote to customer billing and our revenue recognition process, will require us to further develop our controls and reporting systems and implement or amend new or existing controls and reporting systems in those areas where the implementation and integration is still ongoing. All of these changes to our financial systems and the implementation and integration of acquisitions create an increased risk of deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting. If, in the future, our internal control over financial reporting is found to be ineffective, or if a material weakness is identified in our controls over financial reporting, our financial results may be adversely affected. Investors may also lose confidence in the reliability of our financial statements which could adversely affect our stock price.

We may be subject to securities class action or other litigation. For example, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. Litigation can be lengthy, expensive, and divert management's attention and resources. Results cannot be predicted with certainty and an adverse outcome in litigation could result in monetary damages or injunctive relief. Further, any payments made in settlement may directly reduce our revenue under U.S. GAAP and could negatively impact our

We cannot make assurances that the steps taken by us to protect our intellectual property rights will be adequate to deter misappropriation of proprietary information or that we will be able to detect unauthorized use and take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. We also are subject to the risk of litigation alleging infringement of third-party intellectual property rights. Any such claims could require us to spend significant sums in litigation, pay damages, develop non-infringing intellectual property or acquire licenses to the intellectual property that is the subject of the alleged infringement.

Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a third party from acquiring control of us in a merger, acquisition or similar transaction that a stockholder may consider favorable. Such provisions include:

In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which restricts certain business combinations with interested stockholders in certain situations, may also discourage, delay or prevent someone from acquiring or merging with us.

ITEM 1B.    Unresolved Staff Comments