THE country is expected to have installed a 516-megawatt (MW) capacity of data centers by 2028, Fitch Solutions unit BMI said.

In its commentary released to the press on Friday, BMI said there were over 400 MW of committed data center capacity from companies over the past 10 months.

"Notable recent data center investments in the Philippines have been announced by STT, ePLDT and a joint venture (JV) between PAG and Ayala Corp. In July 2024, the latter JV managed to secure the first tranche of a P10.8-billion ($185-million) 10-year loan that will finance the development of a 36-MW campus in the Laguna area, with the first 6 MW coming live in the fourth quarter 2024," BMI said.

Also this month, ePLDT started the construction of Vitro Santa Rosa hyperscale campus, with a capacity of around 50 MW.

STT also commenced the construction of its 124-MW Fairview campus and another 6-MW facility in Cavite.

"Following the latter investments, we estimate that the Philippines will have over 516 MW of upcoming data center capacity over the next four years. The bulk of this capacity is made [from] an investment announced in June 2024 for an unnamed data center campus in the Tarlac area hosting up to 300 MW, with no further details disclosed at the time of writing," BMI added.

Aside from serving the local market, cross-border capacity leasing could be a new opportunity for the Philippines, it said.

"New developments try to take advantage of the country's strategic location that can service digitally mature East Asian economies featuring increasingly high prices for hyperscale customers looking to lease capacity locally," BMI said, citing potential markets such as Japan and South Korea.

BMI also expects that hyperscale customer demand in the Philippines will surge over the coming years once neighboring markets reach saturation.

Currently, Malaysia and Indonesia receive the bulk of Asia's data center investments.

"That said, despite local officials claiming that resources to make hyperscale data centers sustainable are sufficient, we believe investors will gradually diversify away from those markets to avoid sudden moratoria," BMI said.

"Consequently, the Philippines may be able to exploit this opportunity and gradually become a more important destination for large cloud investors and other high-value hyperscale clients," it added.

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