Who’s really solving AI’s data centre energy crisis in Asia?

EACH new chatbot response or artificial intelligence (AI)-generated video comes with a hidden cost: the massive power needed to run the servers behind them. Data centres now consume so much electricity that they are straining grids in US cities and raising questions about sustainability in Asia, where many facilities still run on fossil-heavy energy mixes.

But the next breakthrough in managing AI’s energy crunch in Asia may not come from Big Tech. Instead, the brunt may fall to colocation providers, the companies that operate these massive facilities.

In the US, hyperscalers such as AWS or Google Cloud often build and run their own sites. But in Asia, they rely heavily on third parties, renting facilities from colocation providers such as AirTrunk and Iron Mountain. According to S&P Global, this helps them distribute the upfront costs while still providing services to end-users.