Under the Radar: Digital Core REIT’s CEO on the impact of AI boom on data centre demand and how Southeast Asia could be a bright spot

Money Matters with Hongbin Jeong and Chua Tian Tian

Did you know that a ChatGPT query takes up nearly 10 times the amount of electricity needed to run a Google search on average?

That’s right. And what that means is that the current boom in artificial intelligence we’re seeing is driving up a significant increase in data centre workload and demand for data centre capacity.

For one thing, the International Data Corporation or IDC expects the surging demand for AI workloads to drive up AI data centre capacity at a projected compound annual growth rate of 40.5% from 2024 through 2027.

But how has that filtered down to data centre operators and related REITs? That’s what we are going to find out from our guest for today, Digital Core REIT.

Listed on the mainboard of the SGX in 2021, Digital Core Reit is said to be the only pure-play data centre Singapore REIT sponsored by data centre owner and operator Digital Realty.

The REIT has a principal investment strategy of investing in a diversified portfolio of stabilised income-producing real estate assets located globally which are used primarily for data centre purposes, as well as assets necessary to support the digital economy.

Currently, the REIT holds US$1.4B in assets under management and 10 data centres in its portfolio. But how will this change amid the boom in AI, and how far will Southeast Asia be a bright spot for the firm, with big techs pouring investments into the region to build data centres?

Also – how does Digital Core REIT assess Singapore as a destination to host data centres?

On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to John Stewart, CEO, Digital Core REIT.

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