Asia Pacific’s data center development pipeline reached a record 26.5 GW in H1 2026, driven by accelerating investment from hyperscalers, cloud providers and AI platforms, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s APAC Data Centre H1 2026 Update.
The report highlights a shift in development strategies as power availability, infrastructure readiness and regulatory certainty become increasingly important factors in site selection. Developers are expanding into secondary locations and emerging markets where electricity supply can support large-scale facilities.
According to a press release, the pipeline expanded by 7.1 GW during the first half of the year, comprising 4.8 GW under construction and 21.7 GW in planned capacity. Around 1.4 GW of new operational capacity was delivered, while colocation vacancy fell from 10.9 percent in H2 2025 to 10.3 percent, reflecting continued absorption of new supply.
“AI and cloud investment across Asia Pacific has entered a phase of rapid, power-constrained execution, the challenge increasingly lies in securing the power infrastructure needed to support the next generation of AI workloads,” said Andrew Green, Head of Data Centre Group, Asia Pacific. “Historically, data centers were clustered around connectivity, but now, we’re seeing expansion gravitate towards markets that can provide power at scale. This is creating new growth corridors across the region and accelerating investment beyond traditional data centre hubs.”
Pritesh Swamy, Head of Research & Consulting for the Data Centre Group in Asia Pacific, said, “We’re seeing developers move beyond traditional data center blueprints as infrastructure requirements become more demanding. In most markets, speed to market is increasingly shaping development decisions. Modular construction approaches and advanced cooling technologies are helping operators maximise available infrastructure while shortening deployment timelines.”
Southeast Asia accounted for about 50 percent of APAC’s under-construction capacity, with Malaysia leading at 1.0 GW, followed by Thailand at 859 MW. Johor and Bangkok were among the fastest-growing markets, with Johor’s under-construction capacity rising 91 percent to 602MW and Bangkok’s increasing 148 percent to 859MW.
The report covers major APAC markets including Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, Hong Kong, China, Johor, Seoul, Jakarta and Bangkok, alongside secondary markets such as Delhi, Taipei, Auckland, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Perth.
Other markets recording strong pipeline growth included Sydney, where total development capacity rose 65 percent to 2.1 GW Mumbai, which increased 31 percent to 1.7 GW and Jakarta, which grew 56 percent to 1.7 GW.