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Asia is pouring money into data centers at a remarkable pace. According to the head of one of the region’s oldest conglomerates, it is also pouring a lot of political risk into the same concrete.
Lincoln Pan, CEO of Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., told the Milken Asia Summit in Singapore on October 9, 2026, that the region’s data-center sector leans heavily on a small group of US technology giants. That concentration, he argued, makes the boom vulnerable to whatever Washington decides next.
A boom built on a few big customers
Pan’s core concern is dependence. Asia’s data-center business increasingly relies on a limited number of US hyperscalers, the cloud giants that rent out computing power at enormous scale.
Pan said the money flowing into data centers and AI large language models represents a concentrated bet. Specifically, it is a bet on the stability of US data policy and on US-China relations. Both, he warned, could be upended by changing government positions in Washington.
Jardine went further, describing the operational stability of US-domiciled firms around the world as “highly uncertain.”
Pan backed his argument with numbers from a McKinsey report. The consultancy found that China is Asia’s largest data-center market. Within it, Western cloud firms account for approximately 70% of hyperscaler demand, while local Chinese providers hold about 30%, according to the figures Pan cited.
Why Jardine is paying close attention
Jardine Matheson is not commenting from the sidelines. Through its Hongkong Land unit, the group holds real estate interests across Asia.
The policy backdrop adds another layer. President Donald Trump has been pushing for faster AI investment, and Jardine’s comments land amid escalating US-China tensions. An American administration encouraging AI spending sounds like good news for data-center builders. The same administration’s posture toward China can cut the other way.
The market is already getting cautious
Pan’s remarks fit a broader mood of caution around AI-linked investments. The clearest recent example comes from Australia.
Firmus Grid Ltd., which is backed by Nvidia, cancelled plans for what would have been one of Australia’s largest initial public offerings. The decision was attributed to investor wariness over inflated AI valuations.
There is also friction on the ground. Debate has grown over how sustainably data centers use resources, and some local communities have pushed back against new facilities being built near them.
What this means for the region’s digital buildout
For investors in Asian technology and infrastructure, Pan’s message is essentially about concentration risk. When a large share of demand comes from a handful of US firms, a single policy shift can affect a wide swath of assets simultaneously.
China deserves particular attention. As Asia’s largest data-center market, it sits at the center of the very US-China relationship that Pan described as a risk factor. The McKinsey split he cited, with Western providers holding approximately 70% of hyperscaler demand, means that market’s trajectory is unusually sensitive to decisions made outside the country.
The key things to watch are fairly concrete. Shifts in US data policy, the direction of US-China relations, and how capital markets treat the next AI infrastructure listing will all signal whether Pan’s caution proves prescient. So will the outcome of local fights over new facilities.
Pan himself framed Jardine as sitting where strong demand meets geopolitical uncertainty. His point is that strong demand alone does not guarantee a stable return, especially when the biggest customers answer to a government whose priorities can change quickly.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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