Table of Contents
Lian Jye, chief analyst at Omdia, told RCR Wireless News that governments are playing a key role in shaping investment decisions
In sum – what to know:
AI infrastructure surges across APAC – Omdia forecasts regional AI chipset revenues to rise from US$57B in 2025 to US$81B in 2030, led by China, Japan, and South Korea.
Policy drives localization push – National AI strategies and sovereign-cloud mandates in China, India, and Southeast Asia are accelerating local data center builds.
Innovation amid supply strain – Huawei’s Ascend roadmap and Alibaba’s AI-native platform show how Chinese firms are strengthening self-reliance and ecosystem maturity.
Artificial intelligence infrastructure investment is accelerating rapidly across the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), with total AI chipset revenues for cloud and data center applications expected to soar from $57 billion in 2025 to $81 billion by 2030, according to Lian Jye, chief analyst at Omdia.
“The growth is largely driven by investment from China, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. All these markets are active in the deployment of hyperscale and sovereign AI data centers,” Jye told RCR Wireless News.
Jye noted that governments are playing a key role in shaping investment decisions through AI strategies, data localization policies, and digital sovereignty frameworks. “China is the leading example of this based on its aggressive push for AI sovereignty, which is supported by data and AI regulations, state policies, and massive investments from companies including Alibaba and Tencent,” he said. “The ‘AI Plus’ initiative and focus on self-reliance following the April 2025 Politburo meeting show this is a coordinated national strategy, not just corporate competition.”
Beyond China, South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam are strengthening their own regulatory frameworks, while India, Indonesia, and Malaysia are enacting sovereign-cloud mandates that require localized data storage and processing — driving a wave of new regional data center construction.
Despite progress, the region faces ongoing challenges around supply chain bottlenecks, particularly in the production of high-end AI chipsets and access to GPUs and networking hardware. “The challenges will always stay as top-tier AI chipsets remain difficult to produce. It is even more difficult for Chinese hyperscalers,” Jye explained. “Nonetheless, after years of investment, China is forging its own robust tech ecosystem.”
That ecosystem is now taking shape through large-scale domestic innovation. “In September 2025, Huawei announced its ambitious Ascend chipset roadmap, unveiling the Ascend 950 to 970, and positioning itself as a serious rival to global leaders and a trusted partner with a clear plan,” Jye said. “Around the same time, Alibaba Cloud launched full-stack AI-native cloud infrastructure and platform, backed by a multi-billion yuan investment plan to drive next-gen AI innovations worldwide.”
Looking ahead, Omdia expects APAC’s AI infrastructure market to evolve through “pragmatic innovation over prescriptive regulation,” balancing rapid technological adaptation with ethical oversight. Jye pointed to four defining trends:
-Hybrid sovereignty models balancing foreign investment with local control,
-Agile governance frameworks that evolve alongside AI advancements,
-Multi-stakeholder ecosystems linking governments, enterprises, and international partners,
-Climate-adaptive infrastructure optimized for tropical and water-stressed regions.
