Princeton Digital invests $1 billion in new data centers in Asia

(Bloomberg) – Princeton Digital Group will spend $1 billion to build new data centers to support its operations in Singapore, underscoring long-term demand for the infrastructure that fuels Southeast Asia’s fast-growing digital economy.

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The Singapore-based company said the new campus it will build in Batam – an Indonesian island a few miles off the city-state’s coast – will allow its customers to expand their infrastructure as investment in the region grows. It secured the power supply for the 96-megawatt system.

“Singapore will continue to play an important role in the Internet in Asia as a digital hub,” Rangu Salgame, chief executive officer of the Warburg Pincus-backed company, said in an interview. “$1 billion is the minimum we would spend because that’s the kind of demand we see coming to Singapore in the next three to four years.”

The company is also expanding beyond the region. In December it announced that it would open its first data center in India with an investment of US$300 million, strengthening its credentials as a pan-Asian operator.

Tech giants like Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS, Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are facing stiffer competition in Southeast Asia, where Chinese rivals are stepping up investments.

In November, Huawei Technologies Co. announced a $300 million investment to upgrade its cloud infrastructure in Indonesia. Alibaba Cloud announced in September that it plans to spend $1 billion over the next three years to support global partners.

Southeast Asia, home of Sea Ltd. and Lazada of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., will reach $330 billion in revenue by 2025, according to a report published by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Co. The region’s consumers are embracing mobile devices and online services at a rapid pace, creating a newfound demand for cloud infrastructure and services. Data localization requirements across the region have also fueled demand for data centers.