Gaw Capital Partners, the Hong Kong-based real estate private equity firm controlled by the billionaire Gaw family, has doubled down on data centers in Japan amid surging demand for AI computing.
The firm announced Monday it has acquired 11,233 square meters of space in Fuchu Intelligent Park, a database cluster less than 30 km away from central Tokyo. The acquisition doubles Gaw Capital’s total land size for data centers in Fuchu Intelligent Park to 22,202 square meters and is projected to increase data center capacity to 78 megawatts from 40 megawatts. The acquisition amount and name of the seller were not disclosed.
“Technological advancements in Japan, especially the ever-growing development of artificial intelligence, which requires exponential computing power, will continue to drive demand for data centers,” Isabella Lo, managing director, principal of investments and head of Japan at Gaw Capital, said in a statement.
Japan is one of the most mature data center markets in Asia, with more than 3,000 megawatts under development, the firm said in the statement. Other investors that have invested in data centers in Japan include Singapore-based GLP and Warburg Pincus-backed ESR.
“The scalability of data center is important,” Lo said in a Gaw Capital blog post last year. “It allows the company to rapidly scale its resources to meet its customer’s exact requirements. It provides the advantage of high-density, power efficiency, and cost reduction over the lifetime of data center investment.”
In 2022, Gaw Capital expanded into the South Korean data center market by partnering with local private equity firm IMM Investment. The two firms jointly invested in Seoul-based data center operator Dreammark1, which has a capacity of 10 megawatts.
Elsewhere in Asia, Gaw Capital has made data center investments in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. “Asia represents one of the last geographic frontiers in the data center space and is the area where we have the greatest opportunities,” Kok Chye Ong, managing director and head of Asia ex-China internet data center platform at Gaw Capital, said in a company blog post in 2022. “There is a huge mismatch between the lack of supply and the increasing demand in various parts of Asia.”
Gaw Capital was founded in 2005 by brothers Goodwin and Kenneth Gaw. Their sister Christina joined them three years later. The firm has $35.9 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2023, making it one of the biggest real estate private equity firms in Asia. Goodwin, who serves as the firm’s chairman, and his family ranked No. 42 on Hong Kong’s 50 Richest list.
