December 11, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. plans to sustain its market dominance in the data center space by building more facilities, mostly in Southern Tagalog, with capacities of at least 100 megawatts.
PLDT’s data center unit VITRO Inc. yesterday announced its intent to keep leading the industry as it stands now, cornering about 60 percent of the capacity offered in the Philippines.
VITRO president and CEO Victor Genuino said the company has the advantage of providing not only the physical asset, but extending digital services as well.
Further, Genuino said VITRO is committed to put up more data centers even as it just completed its 11th and largest data center in VITRO Sta. Rosa, which has a capacity of 50 MW. Genuino said demand for data centers would keep on going up in the advent of artificial intelligence (AI).
By then, VITRO is no longer interested in constructing the same infrastructure as the one it did in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Genuino said the goal from here on is to deliver data centers that can offer a minimum of 100 MW, ensuring that they can serve future demand.
“Once our 50 MW site is already filled up, we will be talking to potential real estate providers to negotiate property. Hopefully, we can already get another lot to build another data center. And if we build, it will be no less than 100 MW,” Genuino said.
Based on industry computations, VITRO may have to spend as much as $1 billion to complete a 100-MW facility given that each MW requires between $8 million and $10 million to build.
In spite of this, Genuino said VITRO is prepared to invest in new data centers, confident that the move would pay dividends down the line.
Right now, VITRO is looking at locating its next data centers still in Southern Tagalog. Genuino said the plan is to build up on the capacity of VITRO Sta. Rosa, which at present offers the most advanced services among all data centers in the Philippines.
As the biggest data center in PLDT’s portfolio, VITRO Sta. Rosa manages more than 4,500 racks that can store applications and information of clients. It is also the first data center in the country able to process high-volume AI processes.
Given the business potential of data centers, PLDT is negotiating with a number of foreign firms, including CVC Capital Partners, interested in taking on a partial stake in VITRO.
Although no transaction is signed to date, Genuino said it would help VITRO speed up the pace of its expansion program if PLDT secures fresh funding from a minority partner.
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