KUALA LUMPUR (XINHUA) – Maybank Investment Bank has estimated the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) data centre market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent by 2028.
The research house said in a note on Tuesday that it estimated about 14 per cent of this growth will be driven by ASEAN’s own needs, while six per cent will be driven by global demand.
It sees ASEAN could emerge as a data centre hub on the back of its favorable cost economics and power/water infrastructure.
While artificial intelligence (AI) provides long-term growth options within ASEAN, Maybank sees medium-term growth as being driven by ASEAN catching up in traditional data centres for cloud computing and storage.
It estimated ASEAN is 55 per cent to 70 per cent behind developed markets in data centre infrastructure on a per capita basis or when adjusted for gross domestic product (GDP).
Following stringent new United States (US) export controls to limit access to advanced AI technologies, Maybank chooses not to be overly negative and rather sees some pockets of potential optimism.
“Large AI-led data centre announcements in ASEAN are United States hyper scaler-led, which we see as relatively better placed to navigate Tier-2 market sanctions,” it said, adding that it sees potential for greater demand for GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) in ASEAN.
