Globe and Ayala's data center arm is scaling to 128 MW. It says our power is not pricey.
STT GDC Philippines, jointly owned by Globe, Ayala and Singapore's ST Telemedia, told the trade department it is building toward a 128 megawatt pipeline. Its regional chief says Philippine electricity sits mid pack in Southeast Asia.
STT GDC Philippines, the data center company owned jointly by Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp. and Singapore's ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, said its Philippine growth plan is scaling toward a total capacity pipeline of 128 megawatts. The company laid this out to Trade Secretary Maria Cristina A. Roque at a meeting in its Singapore headquarters.
It already runs seven data centers in the country. Those are buildings full of computers that other companies rent instead of buying their own. Together they carry a computing load of close to 150 megawatts. Lionel Yeo, the group's chief for Southeast Asia, said the Philippines has competitive power costs and enough land for what it wants to build.
The trade department said Yeo pushed back on the idea that Philippine electricity is too expensive for this kind of facility. Once administrative charges and add-on costs are counted into the advertised rate, he said, the country lands roughly in the middle of the six Southeast Asian markets where STT GDC operates.
Why it matters
The country has spent weeks arguing over whether it can afford to power big AI campuses, most loudly over Pax Silica in Tarlac. Here is a company already running seven of these buildings on Philippine grid power saying the electricity math works. Yeo also said every dollar put into data center infrastructure generates roughly 2.60 to 3 dollars of other local activity, in engineering, construction, consulting and power. The company is sponsoring engineers and technicians through a training program with certification body EPI Group so they can earn the Data Center Foundation Certificate.
The catch to watch
That dollar multiplier came from the company, not from an independent study, and no one has audited it. The capacity numbers also do not line up cleanly: STT GDC says it is scaling toward 128 megawatts while already carrying nearly 150 megawatts across seven sites, and neither the company nor the trade department explained which part is new construction and which is already switched on. There is no timeline, no peso figure and no list of sites attached to the plan yet.