Jardine CEO warns Asia's data-center boom hinges on Washington's next move
In brief
- Jardine Matheson CEO Lincoln Pan spoke at Singapore's Milken Asia Summit on October 9.
- Asia's data-center sector relies heavily on a small group of US tech giants, Pan said.
- Data-center and AI investment is a bet on US data policy and US-China relations, Pan said.
- Western cloud firms hold about 70% of China's hyperscaler demand, Pan said, citing McKinsey.
A concentrated bet on Washington
Asia's data-center business increasingly relies on a limited number of US hyperscalers, the cloud companies that rent out computing power at large scale. Pan said the money flowing into data centers and AI large language models is a concentrated bet. Specifically, he called it a bet on the stability of US data policy and on US-China relations (and he warned that shifting government positions in Washington could upend both).
That's a notable view from Jardine. The group holds real estate interests across Asia through its Hongkong Land unit, and Pan framed it as sitting where strong demand meets geopolitical uncertainty.
Crypto Briefing's account of the summit shows the company didn't soften the point:
Jardine went further, describing the operational stability of US-domiciled firms around the world as “highly uncertain.”
What the McKinsey numbers show
Pan backed his argument with figures from a McKinsey report, which found China is Asia's largest data-center market. Within China, Western cloud firms account for roughly 70% of hyperscaler demand, while local Chinese providers hold about 30%, according to the figures Pan cited. Those are McKinsey's numbers as he presented them on stage, not an independent count.
A tense backdrop
The remarks land at a tense moment.
President Donald Trump has been pushing for faster AI investment, and Pan's comments came amid escalating US-China tensions. There's friction elsewhere, too. Nvidia-backed Firmus Grid cancelled plans for what would have been one of Australia's largest initial public offerings, and Crypto Briefing reported that the decision was attributed to investor wariness over inflated AI valuations. Debate has also grown over how sustainably data centers use resources, and some local communities have pushed back against new facilities nearby.
Pan's framing is simple enough: demand is strong, but the politics underneath it are uncertain.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Jardine's CEO see political risk in Asia's data-center boom?
Lincoln Pan told the Milken Asia Summit that Asia's data-center sector relies heavily on a small group of US technology giants. He argued that this concentration makes the boom vulnerable to future decisions in Washington. He called the investment a bet on the stability of US data policy and US-China relations.
What did the McKinsey data cited by Pan show about China's data-center market?
Pan cited a McKinsey report that found China is Asia's largest data-center market. According to the figures he cited, Western cloud firms account for about 70% of hyperscaler demand in China and local Chinese providers about 30%.
