Megawide scouting for data center clients
MANILA, Philippines — Megawide Construction Corp. is scouting for potential clients for its yet-to-be-built data center, a burgeoning industry that has been on the receiving end of several investments as industry players anticipate increasing data requirements.
Edgar Saavedra, Megawide chair, told the Inquirer last week they were looking for anchor tenants before starting the construction of a hub housing critical servers and information technology networks.
He said they were hoping to build the facility within the year.
The company is targeting to attract hyperscalers, or entities providing cloud, networking, and internet services such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google GCP, Alibaba AliCloud, IBM, and Oracle.
Last year, Megawide inked an agreement with Singapore-based Evolution Data Centers to design, build, and operate a carrier-neutral data center in Cavite.
The project involves the development of a 69-megawatt (MW) facility. The first phase covers the deployment of 23-MW capacity via a 4-hectare data center estimated to cost P16.5 billion over a five-year period.
Strong demand for cloud computing
The rising demand for cloud technology prompted a surge in investment in data centers, which supports the deployment of this critical technology. Cloud has become crucial for hybrid work setup as it enables company employees to access files and other applications digitally anywhere.
READ: Megawide erases losses amid flurry of projects
Telco players like PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom have also been investing heavily to build up their data center capacities in recent years.
The Pangilinan-led company is set to open a 50-MW data center in Laguna by July. The data center arm of the Ayala-led group, meanwhile, held a groundbreaking ceremony for its 124-MW data center in Fairview, Quezon City, last year.
In 2023, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said it was expecting the local data center capacity of 60 MW to grow by 500 percent in the next two years with more players setting up shops here or expanding existing facilities.
Megawide reported a net income attributable to parent equity holders of P188.38 million in the first quarter, a reversal of net losses amounting to P7.12 million the previous year. Total revenues for the period increased by 19 percent to P5.2 billion.
As of end-March, the company has an order book amounting to P44.58 billion. INQ
