Southeast Asia’s data centres and AI infrastructure imperative
Capitalising on a once-in-a-generation opportunity
Southeast Asia’s national governments, national players, global technology companies, and investors must act now to secure their ability to foster innovation, maintain economic competitiveness, and safeguard national security.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is amongst the most defining megatrends of this century, permeating our daily lives and driving substantial growth across economies. But not all AI is equal. Of note is generative AI (GenAI), which goes beyond mere pattern recognition capabilities of traditional AI to transform how images are generated, processed, and stored.
GenAI applications with image recognition capabilities, for example, are expected to replace sensors in many use cases, with significant and widespread repercussions for automation, mobility, and manufacturing, amongst others. These, in turn, must be supported by highly specific and demanding specifications for data centres and other AI infrastructure – most of which cannot currently be met in Southeast Asia today.
The emerging GenAI value chain
Along with the rise of GenAI is a value chain that is emerging to support it (see figure below). On the surface, it looks similar to the traditional AI value chain – with the exception of foundational models. But it is this very difference that drives differential value creation across the value chain.
Given the rapid pace of GenAI’s evolution, all players must continuously reassess their value creation models while adapting and responding to disruptions that can occur at any time. To this end, we believe that Southeast Asian players should consider their value creation activities across all three segments of the GenAI value chain: Application, Platform, and Infrastructure.
The emerging GenAI value chain
Move now, and move quickly
National governments, national players, global technology companies, and investors must recognise data centres and other AI infrastructure as critical assets of tomorrow – and move now, and move quickly, to build these assets on their shores.
