Taiwan, mainland China, and Vietnam offer the most competitive costs for data center construction in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Data Center Construction Cost Guide 2026 conducted by commercial real estate and property management services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Based on mid specification build, the mid-range costs in Taiwan, mainland China, and Vietnam are $6.5 million, $7.1 million, and $7.2 million per MW at data center, respectively. For low-range and high-range costs, the figures are $5.7 million and $8.7 million in Vietnam, $5.6 million and $8.6 million in mainland China, and $5.2 million and $7.9 million in Taiwan.

The top ones for mid-range costs are Japan with $16 million per MW, Singapore with $14.4 million, and South Korea with $10.6 million.

The report noted that major regional hubs across the Asia-Pacific are navigating power hurdles, with grid saturation in key clusters within cities such as Tokyo, Sydney, Taipei, Johor, Singapore. It is creating connection queues that is emerging as the primary gating factor for new development. Power density needs for AI are rising sharply, with racks pushing beyond 140 kW and fragmenting the industry between operators upgrading for liquid cooling and those maintaining traditional low-density air-cooled setups, the reported added.

Regarding operational data centers and targets for 2030, the report showed that mainland China is the top one in the region with 4,694 MW of operational data centers and 2,030 in development. Other top ones in the region are Japan, India, Malaysia, and Australia.

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