Hyperscalers, data centers eye P147 billion projects in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Eleven companies engaged in hyperscalers and data center operations are looking to undertake projects in the country with an estimated value of P147 billion, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

“We are assisting about 11 companies that are in the hyperscalers, data center operations with a total estimated project cost of P147 billion,” Trade Secretary and Board of Investments chairman Ramon Lopez said during the webinar of the Letran Graduate School.

Of these companies, he said five are from the US, working on data center projects with a capacity of 150 to 180 megawatts (MW) or an estimated project cost of over $2 billion.

The DTI is positioning the Philippines as the next strategic hub in Asia Pacific for hyperscalers or companies operating data centers that offer scalable cloud computing services.

A campaign to highlight this potential was launched by the DTI last year.

Given the country’s digital landscape, Lopez said the Philippines is an ideal setting to support the growth of hyperscalers, as well as for telco infrastructure and services.

He said the Philippines has remained the top country in social media and internet usage worldwide.

“There is also a growing interest in data center operations in the Philippines,” he said.

He said the Philippines data center market has tremendous potential, with only 94 MW capacity from existing data centers expected to host the growing cloud services demand.

In addition, he said local enterprise spending on cloud services is expected to rise to about $2.6 billion in 2024 from $1.8 billion in 2020, based on global data.

Last Friday, PLDT Inc. broke ground for its 11th and largest hyperscale data center facility in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Earlier this year, Singapore-based SpaceDC said it would put up the largest hyperscale data center campus in the Philippines to be located in Cainta, Rizal.