HÀ NỘI —  Việt Nam is attracting a growing wave of investment in large-scale data centres, but turning that momentum into a regional hub will depend on securing enough power, strengthening international connectivity and providing investors with a stable regulatory environment.

The country has seen a series of data centre projects worth billions of dollars this year, drawing increasing interest from hyperscale operators and technology companies looking for new locations as more established hubs in Southeast Asia face constraints over land, electricity and room for expansion.

In February, global technology group G42 and a consortium comprising FPT Corporation, VinaCapital and Viet Thai Group announced a long-term partnership to develop large-scale data centre infrastructure in HCM City, with planned investment of up to US$2 billion.

A month later, Accelerated Infrastructure Capital and Kinh Bac City Development Corporation, together with international partners, announced a proposed AI data centre project worth about $2.1 billion.

In April, Starmason announced a $480.3 million hyperscale data centre complex with a planned IT load of up to 60 MW. Evolution, Hathor and Frontier from Singapore announced a $508.8 million data centre project in HCM City with 52 MW of planned IT load.

The investment comes as the Asia-Pacific data centre market enters a period of rapid expansion.

According to the Asia Pacific Data Centre Investment Landscape 2026 report by Cushman & Wakefield, the region's future data centre supply reached a record 26.5 GW in the first half of 2026, up 7.1 GW in just six months, including 4.8 GW under construction and 21.7 GW in the planning stage.

Southeast Asia accounted for about half of the data centre capacity under construction in the Asia-Pacific region, making it the region's biggest growth area. Việt Nam, while still a relatively small market, is attracting growing interest from hyperscale operators, cloud service providers and AI companies seeking new capacity, the report pointed out.

 

Cost advantage

Việt Nam's data centre market remains modest compared with established regional centres, with operational capacity of about 100 MW as of late 2025, concentrated mainly in Hà Nội and HCM City, compared with 1,070 MW in Shanghai, China, and 740 MW in Singapore.

But its relatively low starting point also leaves substantial room for expansion as demand for cloud computing, AI and digital services grows.

According to Lê Bá Tân of Viettel IDC, Việt Nam's data centre capacity is expected to increase five- to sixfold from its current level to nearly 600 MW by 2030, and the country is an "attractive destination for investment in next-generation data centres, and these facilities will certainly meet the demand for AI”.

One of Việt Nam's strongest advantages is construction cost. Cushman & Wakefield estimates data centre construction costs in Asia-Pacific at between $7.9 million and $19.2 million per MW. Japan is the most expensive market at about $19.2 million per MW, followed by Singapore at $17.9 million.

Việt Nam's costs range from $5.7 million to $8.7 million per MW, averaging about $7.2 million, while annual construction-cost inflation is estimated at around 3.8 per cent.

Those lower costs, combined with growing demand from cloud computing, AI applications and the expanding digital economy, are helping position Việt Nam as an alternative to more mature markets.

"JLL Vietnam expects data centre capacity in several Southeast Asian markets to grow at compound annual rates of 22-38 per cent during 2023-28. Việt Nam is likely to follow this trajectory as its digital infrastructure improves," said Lê Thị Huyền Trang, chief executive of JLL Vietnam.

According to John Campbell, director of industrial services at Savills Vietnam, Việt Nam is at the beginning of a significant data centre development cycle.

"Demand had existed for years, while fundamentals such as a young population, high technology adoption and rapid digitalisation were creating substantial room for market growth," he said.

Large cloud service providers had been looking at Việt Nam for the past four to five years and had repeatedly asked operators to study the market, he said, suggesting that demand is not new but that the market is moving closer to a point where it can accelerate.

Power becomes the test

The biggest question, however, is whether power infrastructure can keep pace with the growth of AI and data centres.

Andrew Green, head of Data Centre Group, Asia Pacific, at Cushman & Wakefield, said investment in AI and cloud computing was accelerating across the region but increasingly constrained by access to electricity.

"Data centres that once clustered around locations with strong network connectivity are increasingly moving towards areas capable of providing large-scale power," he said.

The challenge is particularly important as Việt Nam expands its digital infrastructure. The Ministry of Science and Technology said in May that the country had 42 data centres with total designed capacity of about 372.75 MW, more than four times the level in 2021.

In December 2024, the Communist Party of Việt Nam adopted Resolution 57 on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation, setting a goal for Việt Nam to rank among Southeast Asia’s top three countries in AI research and development by 2030, develop competitive digital technology industries and raise the digital economy’s contribution to at least 30 per cent of GDP.

Nguyễn Mạnh Cường, from the Institute of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said electricity demand from AI and data centres would continue to rise rapidly.

Data centres currently accounted for about 0.5 per cent of Việt Nam's total electricity consumption, compared with an estimated 2-6 per cent in the US, he said, suggesting that demand could rise significantly as the country's AI and digital infrastructure expands.

Cường warned that unless investment in new generation capacity, particularly reliable baseload and other firm power sources, is strengthened, Việt Nam could face electricity shortages as early as 2027.

"As Việt Nam is beginning to develop a policy framework to provide different options for supplying electricity to large consumers, the challenge is to ensure that those solutions are commercially viable and capable of providing reliable power over the long term," he said.

Cường also stressed the importance of ensuring coordinated planning for AI, data centre and power development.

Louis Nguyễn, chairman of Saigon Asset Management, said Việt Nam also needed to create a clear and stable investment environment to attract multi-billion-dollar commitments from hyperscale operators.

That should include clearer rules on data sovereignty, privacy, storage, management and cross-border data flows, as well as predictability and stability in the legal framework, he said.

David Jackson, chief executive of Avison Young Vietnam, said Việt Nam should focus on improving the regulatory framework, infrastructure and human resources.

Reliable electricity and water for cooling would remain major infrastructure challenges, while digital connectivity needed further improvement and Việt Nam still faced shortages of highly skilled workers in data centre operations, cybersecurity and systems management, he said.

According to Tân of Viettel IDC, countries’ competitive advantage will increasingly depend on their ability to develop integrated digital infrastructure, including data centres, cloud computing, network connectivity and cybersecurity to support AI.

“If Việt Nam maintains its current pace of investment and addresses bottlenecks in power supply, international connectivity and human resources, the country has an opportunity to significantly narrow the gap with Southeast Asia’s leading cloud computing hubs,” he said. — VNS