Damac to invest $3b in SE Asian data centres

Damac Group, led by billionaire developer Hussain Sajwani, is set to invest $3 billion in building data centres in Southeast Asia to capitalise on the region’s growing demand for AI and cloud services.

Edgnex Data Centres, a subsidiary of the Dubai-based conglomerate, plans to allocate this investment in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand over the next three to five years, senior vice president of investments and acquisitions.

The first data centre in Thailand, equipped with Nvidia Corp. chips, will commence operations in Bangkok in March. Damac, traditionally focused on real estate in Dubai, is expanding into the technology and fashion sectors.

The Southeast Asian expansion is part of a larger strategy to invest $5 billion to $7 billion in expanding Edgnex operations globally. The goal is to develop a digital infrastructure capable of hosting high-end servers for data storage and AI services.

Established in 2021, Edgnex currently operates data centres in Riyadh and Dammam. It has secured land for additional data centres in Malaysia and Indonesia, with plans to utilise Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips in most of these facilities.

Edgnex is also considering similar projects in Vietnam and the Philippines, with announcements expected in 2025.

“Today we have over 550 megawatts of projected capacity towards Southeast Asia, which effectively means that this could be a $5 billion market for us,” Nayar said. “And we are on our way to increase further.”

Attribution: Bloomberg

Subediting: M. S. Salama