Vietnam's data centre market reached value of $654 million in 2024

According to an industry report released by Research and Markets on February 13, Vietnam's data centre market witnessed some new entrants such as Epsilon Telecommunication (KT Corporation), Gaw Capital, and Infracrowd Capital in 2024. These additions are expected to increase competitiveness in the market and lead to increasing revenue generation for contractors and infrastructure vendors.

The Vietnamese government aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It also plans to increase the share of renewable energy in the country's energy mix to around 39 per cent by 2030 as part of its sustainability goals. In light of this trend, data centre operators are also aiming for sustainability. For instance, in April 2024, Viettel announced that it had launched a green AI-ready data centre with a power capacity of around 30MW.

The development of AI-ready data centres in Vietnam is growing steadily.

With the rising adoption of high-performance computing technologies, the market is also expected to witness the adoption of liquid cooling solutions.

In November 2024, the Vietnamese government announced that it had approved a new Law on Personal Data Protection. It will officially come into effect in the second half of 2025. In July 2024, the government also introduced a law under which foreign investors can now fully own data centres in the country.

According to Savills, as competition grows to attract investment in AI, the data centre market in Asia is seeing strong interest, with a sharp rise in new developments. Specifically, Vietnam's strategy for 2030 clearly identifies AI as a fundamental field in the fourth industrial revolution, contributing significantly to creating a breakthrough in production capacity, improving national competitiveness, and promoting sustainable economic growth.

Thomas Rooney, associate director of Industrial Services at Savills Hanoi, said, “There is strong leasing demand in tier-1 markets such as Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Bangkok. However, the growth of rental values has begun to slow and is in the late upswing cycle. Meanwhile, Tier-2 markets such as Johor, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bengaluru are gaining traction, positioned at the early stages of the upswing cycle with rising rental values.”

“To take advantage of the transformative power of AI and data centres, Vietnam needs to invest in infrastructure development, ensuring grid power, cybersecurity, raising data awareness, and promoting data sharing. In addition, possessing high-quality human resources will also be a plus to attract investment to these markets,” Rooney said.

Foreign investors will receive more incentives from 2025 in a bid to pull in more funding from overseas into Vietnam’s high-tech projects on data centres and cloud computing.

Vietnam's data centre server market is expected to grow from $403 million in 2023 to $693 million by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.30 per cent from 2023-2029, according to Research and Markets.

Vietnam continues to be recognised as an attractive destination for data centre investors.