Globally, the surge in electricity demand is outstripping the available power supply in many parts of the world, leading to growing concerns of outages and price increases for the most data centre-dense regions. Asia is no exception, with tech companies rushing to secure long-term contracts to power the data farms that feed artificial intelligence programs.
BlackRock sees huge growth opportunities in Asia for infrastructure to support a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) that’s also spurring energy and water demand.
“The need for data centers over the next five years is going to be double what is currently in the markets,” Brad Kim, BlackRock’s head of Asia Pacific diversified infrastructure, said at a media briefing on Sept 25. “Water infrastructure will need to almost double over the next five years,” he said, referring to cooling mechanisms, “and overall energy consumption will increase by about 50% in the next 10 years across Asia Pacific”.
