Indonesia’s largest telecom operator, Telkom Indonesia, is reportedly exploring a potential stake sale in its data center subsidiary as regional demand for AI and cloud infrastructure accelerates.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the company is assessing strategic options for its data center business, which could include selling a minority stake to investors. No final decision has been made, and deliberations remain ongoing.
The move would align Telkom with a broader regional trend: telecom operators monetizing digital infrastructure assets to fund expansion while retaining operational control.
Riding the AI infrastructure wave
The timing reflects surging investor appetite for data centers across Southeast Asia, fueled by:
- Enterprise cloud migration
- AI model training and inference workloads
- Regional data localization requirements
- Hyperscaler expansion in emerging markets
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has become a focal point for digital infrastructure growth as both global cloud providers and local enterprises expand computing capacity.
Data centers have emerged as one of the most capital-intensive — and high-growth — segments of the telecom and infrastructure ecosystem.
Telkom Strategic capital recycling
For legacy telecom operators, infrastructure carve-outs and partial stake sales have become a strategic financing tool.
By selling minority stakes in tower assets, fiber networks, or data center units, telecom companies can:
- Unlock capital tied up in infrastructure
- Reduce balance sheet pressure
- Fund 5G rollout and digital investments
- Retain strategic oversight
Such moves also allow infrastructure-focused investors — including sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms — to gain exposure to long-term, stable digital assets.
Indonesia’s data center market heats up
Indonesia’s digital economy continues to expand rapidly, driven by e-commerce, fintech, streaming, and enterprise digitization.
Government regulations requiring certain categories of data to be stored domestically have further strengthened the case for local data center buildouts.
In recent years, global cloud giants have expanded their footprint in Jakarta and surrounding regions, intensifying demand for power, cooling capacity, and land suitable for hyperscale facilities.
AI reshaping infrastructure economics
Artificial intelligence is adding a new dimension to data center investment.
AI workloads require:
- High-density computing environments
- Advanced cooling systems
- Reliable power infrastructure
- Proximity to enterprise and consumer markets
Operators that can scale quickly while managing energy efficiency and uptime standards are positioned to capture significant long-term value.
For telecom groups like Telkom, monetizing a stake in data centers could provide capital to expand capacity without taking on disproportionate leverage.
What comes next
While the potential stake sale remains under consideration, the strategic logic is clear: infrastructure assets once seen as back-end utilities are now central to AI-driven growth.
Whether Telkom proceeds with a minority sale, a strategic partnership, or another structure, the move would underscore how Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure landscape is rapidly maturing.
As AI adoption deepens across industries, the region’s data centers are no longer peripheral assets — they are becoming foundational pillars of the digital economy.
