Dive Brief:

• Equinix CFO Keith Taylor will retire from his role in 2026 after a 27-year span at the digital infrastructure company, including 20 years as its finance chief, the business announced in a Wednesday press release and securities filing. The average tenure for finance chiefs is approximately 4.7 years, Crist | Kolder Associates’ most recent Volatility Report found. 
• During his two-decade tenure as CFO for the Redwood City, Calif.-based company, Taylor helped guide Equinix’s financial strategy “through every stage of its evolution,” including its initial public offering in 2020, according to the press release. The business, which offers a global data center network and related infrastructure, has begun a search for Taylor’s successor before his planned retirement, according to the release.  
• "Being a part of Equinix has truly been the opportunity of a lifetime, and I am proud of the business we have built together," Taylor said in a statement included in the release. “I look forward to working closely with [CEO] Adaire and the executive team to identify the right successor and ensure a smooth transition."

Dive Insight:

Taylor, 63, joined Equinix in 1999 as its vice president of finance and interim CFO, international wireless communications and became its CFO in 2005, according to Equinix’s latest proxy statement filed in April.  

Following his retirement as CFO, Taylor will remain with the company for about a year to help ensure a smooth transition. He will serve as a strategic advisor to CEO Adaire Fox-Martin until Mar. 1, 2027, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Taylor will work 20 hours a week in the advisory position and receive a $48,000 yearly salary in association with the role, per the filing. He will not be eligible to receive a bonus for any plan year after 2025, and his previously granted equity awards will continue to vest according to their terms.

Taylor’s departure comes as the company targets data center expansion in the middle of the artificial intelligence boom, aiming to double its current data center capacity by 2029, according to its third quarter earnings report. The company reported record gross annual bookings of $394 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, as well as gross profit of approximately $1.2 billion for the three-month period.  

As part of its bid to capitalize on the growing AI space, Equinix hosted an inaugural AI summit in September and announced a suite of products and updates, including an AI infrastructure solution and expansion of its Fabric Intelligence offering, a network optimization tool, according to a press release at the time.

On Nov. 20, Equinix announced a partnership with German technology and science company Merck, which will tap an Equinix “AI-ready data center” in the country to help advance “AI innovation and scientific discovery,” according to the press release.

The company is moving forward with its AI initiatives after settling the fallout from a short seller report by now-shuttered Hindenburg Research last March, which alleged Equinix was selling an “AI pipe dream” and committed accounting manipulation of metrics including its maintenance capital expenditures, which affected payment of executive bonuses, according to the report.

The report sparked both an investigation by Equinix’s own audit committee and the SEC, with its enforcement division subpoenaing Equinix several days after its release, according to company filings. Company shareholders also filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California, which named Taylor as well as Equinix’s previous CEO, now chairman Charles Meyers as defendants,  surrounding the claims of accounting fraud.

In October, the company entered into an agreement where Equinix agreed to pay a cash settlement of $41.5 million to settle the claims, with a hearing to be held Dec. 18, according to the “Equinix Securities Settlement” website which is tracking the case.

The company on Nov. 19 received notice that the SEC had concluded its investigation and does not expect to take any enforcement action, Equinix said in a Nov. 20 filing. The company, which also received a subpoena by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, also does not anticipate “further related action” from that office, it said in the filing.

Equinix declined to comment further on Taylor’s departure beyond its press release.