In a global context witnessing the strong rise of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and automation, data centers are no longer simply traditional data storage facilities. They are gradually becoming the core part of the socio-economic infrastructure, playing a central role in the activities of governments, businesses and citizens.
The surge in demand for data processing, especially from next-generation AI models, is pushing the data center industry into a period of unprecedented growth. However, to meet the requirements of scale, performance, reliability and sustainability, more and more large data center projects around the world are being built not by a single entity, but through a multi-layered cooperation model between infrastructure investors, technology companies and local governments.
In Southeast Asia, this trend is evident. Microsoft recently announced a $2.2 billion investment in Malaysia to develop a cloud computing and AI ecosystem, including large-scale data centers for language model training, big data processing, and integrated AI services. At the same time, Amazon Web Services (AWS) also announced plans to invest $5 billion in Thailand, while Google is planning to expand its infrastructure in Indonesia and the Philippines. These huge investments are not taking place unilaterally. Instead, they are the product of coordination between many parties: technology corporations that own AI and cloud services, professional data center developers, local governments, and sometimes telecommunications carriers or renewable energy businesses. Each party plays its own role but works towards a common goal: creating a strong, green, secure data infrastructure that is ready for the digital future.
The data center market in Singapore – once considered the capital of this industry in Asia – is facing major barriers in terms of land, energy and environmental regulations. This is forcing investors to turn to emerging markets where investment costs are more reasonable, land size is larger and urbanization is not yet saturated. Among them, Vietnam is emerging as a potential destination. With rapid digital economic growth, a young population, high demand for digitalization and gradually open policies towards the digital infrastructure sector, Vietnam has all the conditions to become one of the important data centers in the region.
One of the prominent examples of multi-layered cooperation in Vietnam is the Digital HUB Data Center Project of DCH Group, located in Ba Ria - Vung Tau. This is a strategic project, not only because of its expected capacity of hundreds of megawatts, but also because of its very modern approach: close connection between technology enterprises, infrastructure providers and management agencies. Expected to start implementation at the end of 2025, this project aims to build a complex of international standard data centers, ready to serve the needs of intensive AI computing, cloud storage and international connectivity.
It is noteworthy that DCH not only plays the role of a financial investor, but also a coordinator of stakeholders participating in this Data Center ecosystem. From the planning stage, DCH has worked with the world's leading technology providers in the fields of AI hardware, high-speed network infrastructure, cooling solutions and energy management. At the same time, the company also closely coordinates with the Ba Ria - Vung Tau provincial government to ensure legality, technical infrastructure, and especially the ability to connect to the national grid and submarine optical cables. Not stopping there, DCH is promoting strategic partnerships with global cloud and AI service providers to establish a flexible, multi-service and multi-customer infrastructure exploitation model.
Technically, Digital HUB is oriented to become a modern data center, achieving Tier IV certification with a power efficiency factor (PUE) of less than 1.5 – an ambitious figure in the industry. Liquid cooling technology will be applied to serve tasks requiring high processing density, especially AI systems using GPUs. This not only improves operational efficiency but also ensures environmental factors – a criterion increasingly focused on by ESG investors.
From a strategic perspective, the cooperation between the parties in the DCH project shows a very referential model for data center development. Instead of operating in a single line, the project is structured as an ecosystem, where each component – from hardware, software, operations management to infrastructure and policies – is linked and supports each other. This helps to minimize risks, increase deployment speed and especially create flexibility in future service exploitation. The data center does not simply provide server space, but can also provide AI-as-a-Service, GPU-as-a-Service, and platforms for high-tech applications such as smart cities, digital factories or e-financial services.
There is no denying that building a modern data center is both time-consuming and costly. A high-end data center project can cost hundreds of millions of US dollars, not to mention the maintenance and operation costs over its decades-long life cycle. In this context, cooperation is the key to effectively allocating resources, sharing risks, leveraging each partner’s strengths, and ensuring long-term investment efficiency. A cooperative model like DCH’s not only helps shorten the implementation time, but also increases its appeal to international customers, especially businesses looking for data centers capable of supporting heavy AI tasks.
Vietnam is currently facing a “golden window of opportunity” to become a strategic data center of the region. To do this, more projects of scale and vision like Digital HUB are needed, and especially a spirit of deep cooperation between the public and private sectors is needed. When parties no longer go it alone but work together towards the goal of sustainable development, the data center is not only a technical infrastructure, but also a foundation to promote the entire digital economy of the country.