 Hi everyone and welcome to JSA TV coming to you today from the Tech Capital event here the International Finance Forum 2023 in Westminster in the center of London. And I'm pleased to be joined with Michael Ortiz, CEO of Layer 9 data centers. Thank you Barbara, thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks so much for joining us. And it's great to speak with you and I know you've got a lot on the go. It's great to be at this event. I'm curious what are your impressions so far of the event and any key takeaways? First and foremost, thanks for having us here. This is a great event because it's very centric to what we are doing in the marketplace. For us, it's really about putting time with the right decision makers, financiers and partners because this project doesn't build itself with one party, right? It's an army of individuals in an ecosystem that helps us be successful. So tell us about the project, tell us about what exactly it is you're working on. So we're very honored and privileged to be working on a project in Latin America, specifically in Mexico. We're launching into what is Project Falcon, one of several projects that we're kicking off that it's going to enable for hyperscale to come to that marketplace. The Bahia region, which is known as the states of Guerrero and Guanajuato, is considered by many the new Ashburn of South America. It's the largest data center cluster in all of Latin America. It's very concentrated. And in just the last three years, there's over 600 megawatts coming to that market in long-term planning capacity. So it's an amazing time to be in that market. So what's driving this growth, GC? Oh, a lot of it is data sovereignty. Absorption of data per capita is increasing substantially in Latin America. Mexico is gaining headwinds and turning those headwinds into tailwinds relative to perception of talent, resources and manufacturing. The situation overseas with the United States has exacerbated supply chain. And as a result, there are very many verticals that are now repatriating operations, assembly and technical expertise back to regions like Mexico. So tell us a little bit about the timeline of growth. I mean, you have a few different things, I think, on the go and some things in your sights down the road. Talk a little bit about that timeline if you don't mind. No, absolutely, Barb. So for us, we are, as I mentioned, we're starting out with Project Falcon. It's a 96 megawatt master campus. It's the largest campus in all of Mexico and one of the largest in Latin America. We are closely centering our focus on the cloud, cloud service providers specifically, who are looking for that scalability, flexibility and moreover, the assurance of delivery of power. We've been very blessed and honored to have accessibility to that kind of power that is unprecedented in the market. And we're beginning construction this summer and building one. And then where? Then where I know that Latin America is sort of your stronghold and where you've been focusing in the shorter term but longer term and next. Sure. Mexico for us is the foothold that we want to establish the baseline for growth. We absolutely see where the hockey puck is going and it's not just in Mexico. There's five distinctive regions in the region that make up the 650 million end users, right? That's the population of Canada and the United States with another 150 million left over. So it's an unaddressed market that is very much looking for groups like ourselves among others to put a foothold. So we would be remiss to think that Mexico is the only place that we're going. We're eyeballing regions in Central America and as well as would be remiss not to think about Europe. Europe is an opportunity as well because it's the regions themselves that we interconnected and Europe is a natural landing zone for many of these regions. And so coming back to the event that we're at today, I know that shortly after we've been, there's been some great content, a lot of interesting speakers and panels today already and great networking. But at the end of the day, we're wrapping up the day with some awards which of course you're nominated for two, not just one but two awards. Which ones are they? So we've been honored to be blessed and to be nominated for two nominations. One for his location, site selection of the year, which is where among, I believe, the only Latin American data center operator that's been nominated for that region. And then we've been nominated for the second, which is digital infrastructure project of the year. More global, there too. We're amongst an esteemed group of panelists and groups that have been nominated. So we're anxiously waiting to see, but to us, it's a win-win already, the fact that we got nominated amongst these very, very well-established firms. For us only being three years old, it's an honor to privilege. Yeah, well, only three years, that's amazing. You've done so much already and I agree it is such an honor to be shortlisted amongst your peers here today. And so as we look towards, you know, we're sort of, we're almost, it's hard to believe, that we're coming up to the second half of this year. So when you start to think of, as we round out 2023 and then looking ahead to 2024, what's on the horizon for you? So for us, it's about execution, discipline, perseverance, because this has been a really tough time with the capital markets the way they are. We're not the only ones that are facing more scrutiny, more questions, more due diligence, private equity, and the banks are asking those smart questions, but now I really dig it into the details there. It's not just the layup, the way it used to be maybe two, three years ago when the Fed was at 0%. Now the risk of tolerance is less and the room for error is even less. So for us, it's about keeping with our plan, keeping our execution plan in place, being prudent, but also maintaining a visionary spirit that look, we went to Mexico not because it was easy, but because it was hard and we succeeded. And we'd like to think that we'd like to apply that principle in a 24 in our new secondary market, which is Project Anakin, and then our third market, which is Project Skywalker. Yeah, so a lot on the horizon. And yeah, I mean, the demand is still there and your plan is still in place. You're just doing it, adding the extra diligence that the market requires at this time. Yeah, understood. And so any parting words as we sort of wrap things up and I let you get back to your day here? I just want to thank everyone on that team for layer nine, layer nine. I may be the face of several faces, but this is a tribe that has enabled this company to be where it's at. I would not be standing here without them. And moreover, we really appreciate the collaboration of our finance partners and our advisors that have gotten us this far. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Michael. It's been such an honor to speak with you and to steal a few moments of your time. And thank you viewers for tuning in to JSA TV as we continue to bring you live footage here today from Tech Capital's International Finance Forum 2023 in central London. Until next time.