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Outside InDavid Dodwell
Smart planning, not panic, must guide Asia’s data centre buildout
The spread of data centres in Asia does not seem to have sparked the kind of protests it has in the West, but good policies are needed to ensure that remains the case
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David DodwellDavid Dodwell is CEO of the trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access. Published: 4:30pm, 9 Aug 2026
Across the United States, home to 37 per cent of the world’s 10,800 or so data centres, 2026 has been awash with protests against this infrastructure buildout. On July 18 alone, 142 protests were reported across 42 states.
According to Data Centre Watch, 75 US data centre projects worth US$130 billion have been blocked or delayed. According to recent Pew research, the more Americans know about data centres, the more negative they are: 67 per cent of American adults are anxious about their impact on home energy costs and 63 per cent are alarmed by potential environmental harm.
Anxiety is also focused on noise, property values, local jobs and rising taxation. It seems data centres have become the new “not in my backyard” flashpoint, with calls for a convergence of protests around August 1, the National Day of Action against Data Centres.
However, this day of action seemingly went unnoticed here in Asia. There doesn’t appear to be comparable controversy over data centres as they proliferate across China and in digital hubs such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Why the contrast in attitudes?
First and foremost is the concentration of data centre construction in a small number of hubs. According to a UN think tank report, more than 90 per cent of AI-specialised computing capacity sits in either the US or China. In contrast, 150 countries “lack significant domestic AI infrastructure”.
Even in the US, data centres are highly concentrated in Virginia, Texas and California, where local communities have already seen significant impacts and fear there are worse to come. Average power bills across the US rose by almost 10 per cent in 2025 compared to the previous year. Data centres’ voracious appetite for water is a pressing concern in water-stressed regions.AdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed00:0000:001.00x