Ho Chi Minh City emerges as regional hotspot for data center investment

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 14 data centers operated by nine companies with a combined IT capacity of 33 megawatts, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Asia-Pacific Data Center Market Update for the first half of 2026.

IT capacity refers to the amount of electricity supplied directly to servers and data processing equipment, a key indicator used to measure the size of a data center market.

Higher IT capacity enables greater support for cloud computing, AI, digital banking, and e-commerce services.

The city also has an additional 68MW of planned IT capacity, including 14MW under construction and 54MW in the investment preparation stage, more than doubling its current capacity.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, the vacancy rate at Ho Chi Minh City’s colocation data centers currently stands at 34.8 percent.

The relatively high vacancy rate indicates that the city can still accommodate short-term demand while also reflecting that Ho Chi Minh City remains at an early stage of development compared to more mature data center markets in the region.

Demand for data centers in the city is expected to continue rising as businesses accelerate the adoption of cloud computing and AI, while hyperscale cloud service providers expand their investments.

The development of Vietnam International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City is also expected to generate significant demand for highly secure, reliable, and high-performance data infrastructure to support financial institutions, cross-border transactions, and AI-powered financial applications.

Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh City in particular, has recently attracted several major investments in the sector.

During the first half of 2026, UAE-based AI company G42 signed a US$1 billion framework agreement with FPT Corporation and Viet Thai Group to develop three data centers in Vietnam. The company is also participating in a $2 billion hyperscale AI data center project in Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, StarMason, a joint venture between Singapore-based Sembcorp and BB Holdings, has received approval to invest in a 90MW data center project in Ho Chi Minh City.

The International Finance Corporation has also announced a plan to invest up to $3 billion in Vietnam, including digital infrastructure projects.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, Vietnam’s decision to fully open the data center sector to foreign investors from January 2025, combined with huge foreign investment inflows, is strengthening Ho Chi Minh City’s position as one of the leading emerging data center markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

Savills forecast that Vietnam’s data center market will continue expanding rapidly, supported by regulatory liberalization, growing data protection requirements, wider adoption of cloud computing and AI, and the rapid growth of e-commerce.

The consultancy projected that Vietnam’s data center market will generate more than $3 billion in revenue by 2031, representing an annual growth rate of over 20 percent.

It also expects Vietnam to become one of the region’s next major data center destinations thanks to its relatively low construction costs.

In Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, data center construction costs range from $5.7 million to $8.7 million per MW, with an average of about $7.2 million per MW.