2026.03.30
Singapore's integrated infrastructure company Sembcorp Development announced on March 27, 2026 that it had obtained investment approval from Ho Chi Minh City authorities to build an AI-ready hyperscale data center campus within the Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Total investment is about USD 450 million (about JPY 67.5 billion), with a maximum capacity of 90MW scale, making this one of the largest data center projects ever attracted to SHTP.
What will be built is a data center campus operated by "StarMason JSC." StarMason was established as a joint venture between Sembcorp Development (49% stake) and Vietnam's BB Holdings.
Key specs:
SHTP itself has set a strategic policy of prioritizing data center investment of "more than JPY 10 billion per hectare," but this Sembcorp project far exceeds that benchmark.
Investment in AI infrastructure has been accelerating across Southeast Asia since 2026. There are three structural factors behind this.
Vietnam's digital economy is said to have reached 16% of GDP in 2025, with companies moving in earnest toward cloud migration and AI adoption. Domestic data center supply continues to lag behind demand, and there is strong demand for large-scale foreign-invested DC construction.
As US-China tensions deepen, global companies are pursuing geographic diversification of their data infrastructure. Vietnam has rapidly emerged as a leading DC location candidate within ASEAN, after Singapore and Malaysia, valued for its power costs, political stability, and geographic position.
The Vietnamese government has set a target of 30% of GDP for the digital economy by 2030, and positions attracting foreign investment in semiconductors, AI, and data centers as a top priority. Ho Chi Minh City announced that its Q1 2026 FDI attraction reached USD 2.9 billion, up 219% year on year, led by the digital infrastructure sector.
Sembcorp Industries (listed in Singapore) is an integrated infrastructure group covering energy, urban development, and infrastructure. It has a track record in Vietnam developing renewable energy and industrial parks, and this entry into data centers extends its business portfolio. With Singapore's state investment fund Temasek as a major shareholder, confidence in its governance and financial soundness is high.
This Sembcorp project carries important implications for Japanese companies in several respects.
Building a large DC creates demand for suppliers of power equipment, cooling systems, security, operations management, and network equipment. This could become an order opportunity for Japanese engineering and electrical equipment makers.
If large-capacity data centers are built in Vietnam, latency for SaaS and AI services will improve, lowering the barrier to local rollout. Japanese IT companies can use this as infrastructure when expanding services in Vietnam.
As foreign investment attraction into SHTP accelerates, 2026 looks to be an important inflection point for Japanese companies to join Vietnam's digital ecosystem.
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