PDG announced the completion of the first phase of its Johor campus in July (Image: Princeton Digital Group)
Princeton Digital Group has acquired land for a 500-megawatt capacity expansion in key markets of India, Malaysia and Indonesia, as the Warburg Pincus-backed data centre platform seeks to meet rising demand for AI-ready infrastructure among hyperscale users.
The buy includes 88 acres (35.6 hectares) across Mumbai, Chennai, Johor and Jakarta, PDG said Thursday in a release. No financial terms were disclosed. The announcement follows a report this week that the Singapore-based firm was looking to raise as much as $1 billion to refinance debt and build out the business.
After a sharp rise in North America over the last 18 months, the first wave of AI-driven demand in Asia has rewarded PDG in light of the firm’s engagement with hyperscalers, track record of execution and data centre footprint, said co-founder, chairman and CEO Rangu Salgame.
“In anticipation of the continued growth of AI demand, and driven by the strategic needs of our customers, we have now acquired a further 500MW of powered land and expansion footprint,” Salgame said. “This capacity is in locations where we have already proven our ability to deliver.”
$5B Investment Push
The newly secured land is expected to drive a $5 billion investment programme and expand PDG’s portfolio by nearly 50 percent.
PDG co-founder, chairman and CEO Rangu Salgame
The firm’s flagship Mumbai data centre, MU1, will become a 150MW campus with the addition of 100MW of capacity, and a new 72MW campus in Chennai, CH1, will boost the platform’s footprint in India to 230MW, according to the announcement.
“Mumbai and Chennai have been the pre-eminent hubs for cloud infrastructure in India due to the combination of submarine cable landing proximity, high-quality power supply, availability of renewable energy and robust infrastructure development,” said Vipin Shirsat, managing director of PDG India. “With the advent of AI in India, both locations are well-positioned to become leading AI infrastructure hubs as well.”
In Malaysia, PDG will add 200MW of capacity to reach a total of 370MW in the data centre hotspot of Johor, while the Indonesian expansion includes a 100MW site in Jakarta.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday that PDG was in early-stage talks to raise $1 billion in a potential deal that could involve debt and equity. PDG didn’t respond to Mingtiandi’s emailed request for comment on the report, which cited unnamed people familiar with the discussions.
Malaysia Leads Regional Boom
Founded in 2017 and backed by global investors Warburg Pincus, Mubadala Investment Company and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, PDG has more than 20 data centre projects across 15 Asia Pacific cities.
The firm has been expanding fiercely in an APAC data centre market that added 1.3 gigawatts of new supply in the first half of 2024 to reach operational capacity of 11.6GW, according to an update by Cushman & Wakefield.
Malaysia saw the greatest increase in operational capacity with an 80 percent gain compared with the previous six-month period, led by the southern state of Johor, where PDG announced the completion of the 52MW first phase of its 150MW JH1 campus in July.
With 1.9GW of existing and committed capacity, Johor is on the brink of joining the region’s four 2GW-plus markets, namely Beijing (2.9GW), Tokyo (2.7GW), Shanghai (2GW) and Sydney (2GW). Cushman rates Johor as the region’s second most “mature” market, trailing only Sydney, due to a low vacancy rate of 2 percent and the highest build capacity among markets.
“Malaysia’s recent growth is the result of a culmination of factors including spillover from Singapore, developer speed to market and the country’s ‘ready for service’ infrastructure,” said Vivek Dahiya, head of Cushman’s APAC data centre advisory team. “Cost is also a major factor. Malaysia’s central bank rate is competitive and this, combined with a relatively affordable cost of entry and government incentives for the sector, make it an appealing location for customers from hyperscalers through new entrants to the sector.”
Earlier this month, US investment giant Blackstone agreed to buy AirTrunk in a deal valuing the APAC data centre platform at A$24 billion ($16.1 billion), or more than $20 million per megawatt of committed capacity, setting a benchmark to be closely watched by fast-growing regional players like PDG and Stonepeak-backed Digital Edge.
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