Soaring demand from Chinese tech giants and startups for artificial intelligence infrastructure has driven a sharp increase in data center rental costs in Hong Kong, reports infohub.kz.
Chinese tech corporations, including Bytedance, Alibaba, and Tencent, along with numerous AI startups, are actively expanding their presence in Hong Kong's data centers. The surge in demand, fueled in part by the success of the DeepSeek model, has pushed wholesale server rental prices in the city up by 90% since the beginning of 2026, reaching $180 per kilowatt.
According to analytics firm Structure Research, about 90% of digital infrastructure leasing deals in Hong Kong in recent months have been attributed to Chinese businesses. Chinese companies are using Hong Kong as a launchpad for testing neural networks and entering the international market. The city attracts the tech sector with its free data flow and direct access to global markets, unlike the heavily regulated internet in mainland China. Additional demand for capacity is also being driven by major financial institutions and algorithmic trading.