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Asia is becoming a major data center construction hub, backed by sustained capital inflows and confidence in the region's artificial intelligence prospects, with Japan ranking as the world's most expensive market for these projects, according to research from Turner & Townsend.
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Tokyo has topped the construction cost table for the fourth year running, with an average expenditure of US$18.28 per watt (HK$142.58), while Osaka ranked second at US$17.15 per watt, reflecting the speed of Japan's ascent and the strength of demand for data centers from AI companies and other tech businesses in the country, Turner & Townsend's Data Center Construction Index report showed on Wednesday.
In Asia's other locations, Singapore, which averages US$15.39 per watt to construct data centers, takes the fourth spot, while Hong Kong and Jakarta rank 14th and 26th, respectively.
In contrast, China's Shanghai, India's Mumbai and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City are the three lowest-cost places among 62 surveyed markets in the world to build a data center, with costs of US$5.79, US$6.83 and US$8.32 per watt on average, supported by cheaper labour and greater access to it, the global programme management company said.
Outside of Asia, Zurich in Switzerland ranked as the second-highest-cost location at US$15.93 per watt, and Silicon Valley in the US took the fifth place with US$15.01 per watt.
Globally, a total of 17 European and 13 North American markets make up almost half of the top table, reflecting these regions' continued dominance of the data centers industry, it said.
The firm added that around half of all global data centers are in North America, and a quarter are in Europe.
