The Asia-Pacific region may represent 34% of global data center demand by 2030. Growth stems from artificial intelligence adoption and enterprise digitization. That share would place APAC as the second-largest market after North America, which is expected to hold 46%.
China leads regional demand
Mainland China is set to dominate the region’s expansion, covering over 70% of demand by 2030. The projected capacity reaches roughly 58 gigawatts.
Outside China, new hubs are forming in Johor, Malaysia; Chonburi, Thailand; Jakarta, Indonesia; Mumbai, India; and Osaka, Japan. Western cloud providers like AWS, Google, and Microsoft drive about 70% of hyperscaler demand in the area. Chinese tech companies cover the remaining portion.
AWS has invested $15.5 billion to expand its data centers in Osaka and Tokyo. Alibaba extended its footprint into Malaysia and the Philippines, while ByteDance anchors colocation facilities in Southeast Asia.
Sovereign AI strategies fuel investment
Governments in APAC are backing AI development with national plans. Singapore updated its National AI Strategy in May 2026, pledging an additional $781 million over five years for research and adoption. Japan launched ABCI 3.0, a sovereign AI supercomputer, with $226 million in funding. These moves are increasing demand for local data center capacity.
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In China, localization efforts cover the entire supply chain, from cooling systems to AI chips. Domestic companies lead in several segments, though foreign investment remains welcome in areas like power modules and electrical equipment.
AI workloads are changing demand patterns. Traditional compute and storage made up over 70% of APAC’s needs in a 2025 survey, but AI training and inference are rising. By 2030, a near-even split between AI and traditional workloads is expected. Manufacturing, retail, and fintech sectors will drive much of this growth.
Investment is accelerating. Between January 2024 and May 2026, AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle committed over $160 billion to build AI infrastructure in APAC. Alibaba announced a $52 billion global investment in cloud and AI over three years. ByteDance may spend $30 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone.
Investors view hyperscaler and colocation platforms as key control points. These offer visibility into demand and influence over supply chains. Strategic investments in equipment like power cooling and networking are also seen as potential bottlenecks worth targeting.
The region is now a demand market shaped by local AI adoption, enterprise digitization, and sovereign strategies.
