PH sets $34-B plan to catch up in AI race
Manila has laid out a $34.4-billion plan to catch up with more established Asian peers in attracting artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investments, betting largely on private capital to build the data centers and other facilities needed to seize opportunities from the global AI boom.
Under the Philippine AI Infrastructure Master Plan unveiled on Tuesday, the government aims to mobilize the investments through 2033, with $21 billion expected from the private sector and $13.5 billion from public spending.
Information and Communications Secretary Henry Aguda said the master plan was meant to fill the Philippines’ infrastructure gap, which he noted has constrained the country despite its relatively strong policy and regulatory environment for AI.
“From a policy regulatory standpoint, we rank high. What we lack is infrastructure. That’s where we need to catch up on,” Aguda told reporters on the sidelines of the launch in Mandaluyong. “If we don’t create infrastructure, we will really be left behind.”
Aguda said the plan also responds to concerns raised by economists that the Philippines risks missing out on the AI boom.
In a recent report, London-based research firm Capital Economics said the Philippines was falling behind in the AI race, as it neither benefits significantly from the global surge nor is well positioned to capture the productivity gains that wider adoption could bring.
That lag in capturing AI investments is also among the reasons the Philippine economy lost steam amid the Middle East crisis, according to Moody’s Analytics, while regional peers such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand proved more resilient partly due to their exposure to the AI investment boom.
According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), only $16.3 billion of the $34.4 billion represents additional investment requirements, as about $18.2 billion is already covered by existing connectivity and energy initiatives.
Of the remaining requirement, about $10 billion would have to come from the private sector and $6.3 billion from public investment.
The single biggest investment requirement is AI computing and data centers, at about $14.6 billion.
This is meant to expand the country’s AI data center capacity to 1.5 gigawatts by 2033 from the current baseline of only 50 megawatts (MW). It will also help deploy high-capacity fiber networks, submarine cable systems and regional internet exchange points.
Rather than concentrating these facilities in Metro Manila, the master plan identifies the Clark-Bataan corridor as the primary anchor for AI infrastructure.
Batangas-Aurora and Subic-Calabarzon would serve as supporting hubs, while Cebu-Iloilo and Davao are being eyed as future regional nodes.
Even ahead of the master plan’s launch, Aguda said two US hyperscalers were already studying possible sites, primarily along the Clark-Bataan and Batangas-Aurora corridors. Each is considering capacity of about 200 MW over five years.
Aguda said the master plan is designed partly to make those investment decisions easier by identifying where prospective locators can secure the land, power, water and connectivity they require.
“With this AI master plan, they already have everything they need to check,” he said.
The DICT hopes serious locators could emerge this year, potentially paving the way for projects to move forward as early as 2027.
Beyond infrastructure, the plan seeks to prepare the country’s 1.3 million IT-business process management workers for AI-enabled services and help generate more than 500,000 AI-related jobs by 2033.
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