To expand its operations in Asia Pacific, the PLDT Group, through subsidiary ePLDT, this Friday, June 23, announced it is building a 12th data center, estimated to cost at least $700 million.
The data center will have a total power capacity of 100 megawatts (MW), double that of the company's $350 million 11th data center, VITRO Sta. Rosa.
The 50MW capacity VITRO Sta. Rosa, scheduled to be completed early next year, will be the country’s largest and most advanced data center.
While ePLDT has not disclosed its investment for its 12th facility todate, as a general rule, it costs between $7 million to $12 million per megawatt of commissioned IT load to build a data center.
Hence, ePLDT could cough out at least $700 million to as much as $1.2 billion for its latest facility.
The 12th data center will boost the ePLDT Group's 65 percent data center market capacity share to cope with rising demand from hyperscalers, Content Delivery Netwoks, banks, Business Process Outsourcing, carriers and government clients.
With VITRO Sta. Rosa on the rise and a 12th data center facility underway, ePLDT’s power capacity will increase to around 200MW once both sites are activated.
Overall, the Philippines is poised for a 13 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in data center operational space between 2020-2025 due to the recent expansion of hyperscalers and significant interests of global enterprises in the country, according to market intelligence reports.
The PLDT Group’s decision to build the 12th data center is anchored on customers’ needs, ePLDT President and CEO Victor S. Genuino stated during the W. Media Philippines Cloud and Datacenter Convention 2023.
The move is also part of ePLDT’s vision to boost the country’s regional competitiveness and bring much-needed investments, he underscored.
“We want to be able to help the Philippines be the next hyperscaler hub of Asia while continuing to support the digital transformation journey of different sectors locally," the ePLDT President explained.
He added, "That’s why we’ve been investing heavily in our ecosystem to ensure that our data centers will be a crucial enabler of the country’s digital economy.”
“Historically, data centers have played a silent yet fundamental role in the digital agenda, most especially in the Philippines. But things are changing now," Genuino noted.
He said "Governments and enterprises are now seeing the integral role that this industry takes on to secure our digital future.”