Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta are among the top 10 data center markets in Asia Pacific that have the potential to chalk up the highest growth in future, according to data center research house DC Byte.
In a recently published report, it identified the markets that are positioned for the strongest future expansion, rather than those that are currently the largest or most established.
“While market size remains an important indicator of maturity, long-term competitiveness will increasingly depend on infrastructure readiness, regulatory certainty, and the ability to convert demand into operational capacity,” it stated in the report which ranked Future Growth Metro Markets globally.
Based on the new evaluation method, Johor has sprinted to pole position followed by Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Greater Beijing, Melbourne, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Jakarta.
Johor
Johor’s stunning growth from 10MW five years ago to about 1GW in four years makes it stand out deserving its leading position as the top Emerging Growth Metro in Asia Pacific. The market continues to remain attractive with strong hyperscaler demand led by ByteDance (plans potentially exceed 1GW from current 700MW), Microsoft, Oracle, Alibaba, and other neocloud players.
“The market is exceptionally business friendly with active state-level facilitation of projects, while power remains relatively cheap and stable despite tariff increases in late 2024,” it stated.
Kuala Lumpur
Placed at eight position under the ranking, Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of Malaysia, continues to draw investment due to its proximity to enterprise customers, network infrastructure, and an established digital ecosystem.
Operators are expanding existing facilities and developing new capacity, while cloud providers are increasing their presence through local regions and availability zones. Rising AI deployments are seen among Asian and Western hyperscalers who are expanding into wider Greater Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding.
As with Johor, KL enjoys low land and operating costs, adequate power resources and favourable policies such as fast approvals, investment incentives and initiatives such as the Green Lane Pathway. Demand for low-latency digital infrastructure continues to be strong due to its position as a business and connectivity hub.
KL DC market has experienced rapid growth over the last five years and the strong momentum is expected to continue with a broader workload and a significant increase in operational capacity over the next few years as more projects come online.
Jakarta
As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta naturally attracts the most investment with tech giants such as AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft converging there with their cloud regions. Other major players include NeutraDC, DCI Indonesia, Alibaba Cloud, and NTT.
“Demand continues to scale quickly, driven by Indonesia’s large digital economy, enterprise cloud adoption, data-residency needs, and AI growth,” the report stated. Growth is expected to continue in the coming years despite power availability and grid delay constraints.