APAC Data Centre Weekly

Editor’s note

The Smaller Numbers Did More Work

Lee Heggan · Editor · Week of 26 October 2026

In 2023, Singapore’s pilot DC-CFA handed out about 80MW. This week Nxera opened its circa 60MW DC Tuas facility, lifting its Singapore estate to circa 120MW. That is the kind of number worth taking seriously: switched on, named and measurable. Our 29 October database does not yet carry the site and still puts Singapore at circa 1.1GW live with 162MW under construction. The next refresh should reconcile the opening, not simply stack it on top.

The same hierarchy applies to money. AirTrunk’s A$4.25bn green loan for SYD3 is not delivery, but committed debt for a campus already being developed is strong evidence. Australia has 2.73GW under construction against circa 1.6GW live, the region’s largest construction book, so funding the work matters. STTGDC’s US$590m green loan for its Inzai campus is similarly concrete: the two Tokyo facilities carry 70.8MW combined, with TYO1 operating and TYO2 being developed. OneQode’s 14MW lease from AdaniConneX adds contracted demand rather than another market forecast.

Then come the larger numbers. Quantum DC’s proposed 1.2GW South Australia energy and data-centre hub at least has a timetable: first operations in 2028 and full completion by 2031. It also has no development application lodged. Cortex DC’s new 2GW India target arrives without disclosed funding or a schedule in this week’s report. SoftBank’s reported US$50bn Malaysia plan names Kuching and Peninsular Malaysia, but again gives no delivery timetable. These may become real projects. Today they remain ambitions.

Malaysia’s policy news shows why the gap matters. The government rejected a national moratorium but said states without enough water cannot host data centres. TNB then pledged to connect approved projects within one year. That is useful, but the clock starts only after approval by a ministry-led committee, and Johor still needs major grid upgrades. Ministers are also discussing making developers pay transmission costs and unused committed capacity. Malaysia is not shutting the door; it is starting to charge properly for walking through it.

That leaves a clear order for the week: energised capacity first, asset-level financing and signed leases next, dated but unapproved schemes after that, and undated mega-numbers last. Announcement is not delivery, but neither is every announcement equal. This week’s smaller numbers did more work than the giant ones.

Watch the first project tested against TNB’s one-year connection pledge, because an enforceable grid date will tell us more about Malaysia’s pipeline than another investment total.

Sources this week