$1-B data hub breaks ground in QC
MANILA -The Ayala Group and its joint venture partner, Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centers (STT GDC), are spending about $1 billion to build a 124-megawatt (MW) data center in Quezon City, as the conglomerate takes on the growing hyperscaler market in the age of heightened digitalization.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Thursday in Fairview for the carrier-neutral data center campus of four buildings that will cover over 83,000 square-meters of gross floor area.
STT GDC president and group CEO Bruno Lopez said during the event the partnership would likely shell out “north of $1 billion” as “investments in data center are not small-ticket items.” The Fairview hub is the Singaporean company’s single largest project to date across its portfolio globally.
According to Carlo Malana, CEO of STT GDC Philippines, the first phase comprising 28 MW is set to go live by early 2025.
He said they would expand alongside the demand from hyperscalers. “As the customers come in, we’re prepared to give them strategic runway into their development and growth in the country,” he added.
Hyperscalers are entities providing cloud, networking and internet services. These include Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google GCP, Alibaba AliCloud, IBM and Oracle.
“This (new facility) will provide crucial support for the growing digital industry not just in the country but also in the region, and will set a new standard of sustainability-driven data centers in the Philippines,” Globe Group president and CEO Ernest Cu said.
The groundbreaking ceremony came a year after Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp. (AC) and STT GDC signed a $350-million deal.
Under the agreement, STT GDC and AC subscribed to the new shares of Globe subsidiary KarmanEdge Inc., which handles the telco’s data center business. Globe is still the largest shareholder with 50-percent ownership, while the Singapore firm owns 40 percent and the parent company holds the remaining 10 percent.
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