Global data centre market to hit US$4 tril by 2030; Apac sees bulk of 2024 investments: Knight Frank
The global data centre market is set to see rapid growth in the coming five years, keeping a good recoil in 2024. According to Knight Frank’s newest Global Data Centres Report, worldwide information centre property transactions volume recovered from an interest rate-hike driven downturn in 2023 to hit US$ 31.8 billion ($42.9 billion) last year, up 118% y-o-y.
The surge in international information facility market activity is anticipated to proceed in the coming years. Knight Frank estimates that the market will notch an annual CAGR of 18% over the following five years, propelling it to strike US$ 4 trillion by 2030.
The resilient outlook reflects mounting need for AI-optimised facilities, cloud services and enterprise digital efforts. Knight Frank projects that worldwide data hub capacity will increase 46%, or 20,828 megawatts (MW), over the next 2 years. By 2030, it anticipates capability can expand by 177%.
Fred Fitzalan-Howard, Knight Frank’s Apac head of data centres, states that the Apac data centre industry will certainly include concerning 8 gigawatts of new capacity over the next three years, with a quarter of this dedicated to AI workloads. While lower than the global standard due to the region’s Tier 2 or Rate 3 status under United States AI diffusion rules, the pipeline stands for US$ 24 billion in capital expenditure and 20 to 30 million sq ft of realty, he adds.
Johor is additionally on track for more rapid growth. Knight Frank approximates the southerly Malaysian state will certainly see 85% (335 MW) ability growth by 2027, backed by US$ 4.7 billion in financial investment.
Across the causeway, Singapore continues to be a key information centre market despite regulative and land constraints. Nevertheless, the record highlights that with uninhabited rates lower 1%, transactions in the city-state have moved towards smaller sized agreements, in tandem with an upsurge in pricing.
Worldwide purchase values averaged US$ 75.4 million in 2024, up 15% y-o-y and 44% higher than pre-Covid levels in 2019. Knight Frank’s research also identified that Asia Pacific (Apac) dominated data centre financial investments, with some US$ 15.5 billion, or 70%, of cross-border information centre deals happening in the region.
Apac is anticipated to add 4,174 MW of capacity by 2027, sustained by US$ 58.7 billion in planned financial investments over the exact same duration. Key factors consist of Tokyo, that is forecasted to see US$ 4.1 billion in investments over the next two years that will underpin 25% (295 MW) of capacity development.
Fitzalan-Howard sees the preliminary financial investments as laying the structure for more AI framework rollouts in the area. “Nevertheless, attending to diverse regulatory structures and adapting to United States export regulates on AI chips stay essential factors in increasing Apac’s possibilities in this quickly evolving sector,” he continues.
