Jabez Tan on PDG Entry into Japan Data Centre Market

Princeton Digital Group enters Japan with $1bn data centre investment

Singapore-based Princeton Digital Group (PDG) has launched its strategy plan to expand its data centre footprint in Japan with a total investment value of US$1 billion.

The company said it will build one of the largest hyperscale facilities in Tokyo, with the new campus at Saitama City said to have close to 100 MW of critical IT capacity across two phases of 48.5 MW each.

Saitama City is one of the major commercial centres of the Greater Tokyo area. Located 30 km north of central Tokyo, the PDG Saitama campus has a total land area of 33,047 sqm (or 355,715 sq ft).  The facility has been designed to serve hyperscalers in Japan.

PDG has already secured the land and power with construction set to begin later this year, the firm said in a statement.

Rangu Salgame, chairman and CEO of Princeton Digital Group, said: “The Asia Pacific region is set to be the largest data centre market in the world, and this announcement underscores our vision to be the market leader in this region.

“Over the last four years, through our unique three-pronged strategy of acquisitions, carve-outs and greenfield development, we’ve built a strong portfolio of data centers across key Asian markets such as China, Singapore, Indonesia and India. PDG has become a partner of choice for hyperscalers across multiple countries.

“Our entry into Japan and, in particular, Tokyo demonstrates our continued ability to enter new markets that matter to our customers.”

Tokyo is the largest data centre market in Asia outside of China and is still in the early stages of growth, particularly in terms of entry and expansion of global hyperscalers.

According to Structure Research, Greater Tokyo’s hyperscale colocation market is expected to reach $1.6 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 25.1% between 2021 and 2025.

Jabez Tan, head of research, Structure Research, explained: “The Greater Tokyo market is projected to see accelerated demand from hyperscale data centre deployments moving forward from what we believe is a convergence of several critical factors that include Japan’s sizeable addressable market as the third largest country in the world by GDP, the absence of a domestic hyperscale cloud platform that presents an ideal competitive landscape between both US and Chinese hyperscale cloud providers, as well as being a key connectivity aggregation and distribution hub for submarine cables landing from the US West Coast to access the rest of the Asia Pacific region.”

Princeton Digital Group is one of the fastest growing operators in Asia and in the world, having in the last two years secured $590 million in funding to finance its expansion projects.

The company could also one of this year’s largest data centre IPOs at a valuation of US$2 billion, following news that it is in conversations to raise a further $400 million. Headquartered in Singapore, Princeton Digital Group Pte is an Asia-focused firm that runs today 18 data centres in 12 cities across China, Singapore, India and Indonesia