The artificial intelligence boom is partially spurring investment in Asia-Pacific’s data centre properties with a record US$11.6 billion worth of capital poured into the segment in 2025, according to CBRE.
In Hong Kong, while AI-related demand is unlikely to be met because of technical limitations, leasing of data centre space was supported by “hyperscale CSPs (cloud service providers), mainland Chinese technology and e-commerce companies and financial institutions”, the property consultancy said.
Across the region, markets such as Malaysia, Australia and India were leading the growth in live capacity – a measure of usable resources including power and space available for deployment. Johor in southern Malaysia has boosted its live capacity by 53 per cent on an annual basis, while the Australian city of Melbourne has added 37 per cent, the report released on Thursday said.
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Meanwhile, in mature markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore, live capacity growth was around 6 per cent to 8 per cent, CBRE said.
“AI is reshaping how infrastructure is selected and deployed across Asia-Pacific,” said Matt Madden, senior managing director for data centre solutions in Asia-Pacific for CBRE.
A new class of AI-focused cloud providers is also emerging as an additional source of demand. Neoclouds are those providers that specialise in high-performance computing infrastructure for AI workloads.