Globe Telecom plans to invest $1 billion in data centers in 2027, aiming to build the segment into the Philippine operator's next billion-dollar business as AI workloads strain existing capacity.

President and CEO Carl Cruz said the company will keep spending on the network, but with sharper focus. "We need to continue investing in the network. … We will continue to do that but with very selective, highly prioritized areas mainly related to data and the digital economy," Cruz told Bloomberg. He expects capital expenditure to run between 23% and 28% of revenue over the next few years.

The Philippines' second-largest telecom operator runs its data center business through ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Philippines, a joint venture between Globe's parent company, Ayala Corporation, and Singapore-based STT GDC. The venture operates five facilities today, with capacity projected to reach 30 to 35 megawatts by the end of this year. IT load is expected to grow to 124MW over the next three years through new sites and expansions of existing facilities.

IPO on the table

Globe Telecom is weighing a public listing of the data center venture to fund the expansion, Bloomberg reported. Cruz pointed to favorable market conditions for digital infrastructure assets. "The market values anything related to the digital economy quite generously," he said.

Demand is outpacing supply in the Philippine market. "We are having a hard time coping with the demand right now for data centers," Cruz told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, adding that the company is working "doubly hard" to capture the growth. He also said Globe has received "a lot of queries" about AI-related products.

Catching up with the neighbors

The Philippines trails regional peers Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in landing large-scale hyperscale investments. The country counts 44 data centers with 140MW of live capacity, plus 43MW under construction and 221MW in the planning stage, according to figures cited alongside the national targets.

The government wants to change that arithmetic. Two weeks ago it unveiled a $34 billion national AI plan that includes a target of lifting AI data center capacity 30-fold, from 50MW today to 1.5GW by 2033. The first phase calls for 400MW completed by 2030.

BMI Research, cited by local media, considers these targets within reach because upcoming developments already skew toward larger facilities designed for cloud and AI workloads. Two projects illustrate the shift: STT GDC Philippines' planned 124MW Fairview campus in Quezon City and ePLDT's prospective facility in Cavite, each capable of providing at least 100MW.

"The Philippines could become a more important destination for cloud and other high-value hyperscale clients," BMI said. "However, announced capacity can take years to become usable compute, and the Philippines' pipeline remains modest relative to Malaysia and Indonesia."

Competition, not spillover

The research firm argued the country cannot count on business flowing automatically from neighboring markets. "The Philippines must therefore compete for deployments rather than rely on automatic spillover," BMI said, adding that the country should leverage its undersea cable links to mature Asian markets such as Japan and South Korea.

Securing hyperscale investment will hinge on practical fundamentals: adequate power supply, sufficient land and shorter project deployment timelines. BMI singled out permitting bottlenecks as the main brake on capacity deployment, saying expansion depends primarily on the government's ability to resolve them.

For Globe, the bet aligns with the state timeline. Its $1 billion commitment in 2027 falls within the window of the national AI plan's first phase, which targets 400MW of AI-ready capacity by 2030 — giving the operator roughly three years to prove that its JV can scale from 35MW toward the government's ambitions.