Vietnam's Data Center Market Splits: STT GDC Exits a Ho Chi Minh City Project as Evolution DC Signs a $508M Lease

Singapore’s ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) is exiting a planned Ho Chi Minh City data center project, selling its 65% stake in joint venture VTH Software Development back to Vietnamese partner VNG for VND480 billion ($18.3 million), according to a VNG stock exchange filing reported August 19. One day later, Ho Chi Minh City authorities granted a separate Singapore-backed developer, Evolution DC, a 50-year lease on nearly 5 hectares in Saigon Hi-Tech Park for a $508 million, 52MW campus.

What is known

STT GDC’s exit unwinds a deal struck in May 2024, when two STT GDC entities bought 65% of VTH and reduced VNG’s stake to 35%. VNG’s filing gives the reason as a strategic and commercial misfit, adding that the remaining term on VTH’s land-use rights — set to expire September 23, 2041 — was “not optimal for the long-term investment and operation of a hyperscale data center.” The site sits on about 2.5 hectares in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone; VNG says it now plans to repurpose the land for an office campus, recreational facilities and an e-sports center rather than a data center. The transaction is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of 2026, pending regulatory clearance, per TechNode Global’s reporting of the filing.

Separately, Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee approved the Evolution DC lease on August 19, according to DTiNews. The nearly-5-hectare plot in Saigon Hi-Tech Park was leased without auction for a term running from March 30, 2026 to March 30, 2076. The facility is designed for 52MW of IT load, currently rated Uptime Tier III+ with a stated goal of Tier IV, and carries a disclosed investment of more than $508 million. Evolution DC VN HCMC is backed by a Singapore-based consortium — Hathor, Frontier and Evolution Data Centers — the last of which lists Warburg Pincus and Abu Dhabi’s Zero Two among its investors. Neither report names a construction start or energization date.

What it means for a power buyer

Coloprice’s Vietnam catalog currently tracks roughly 30MW of named capacity across five facilities — two in Hanoi (VNPT, Viettel IDC) and three in Ho Chi Minh City (CMC Telecom, FPT and Gaw Capital Partners), none of which discloses a design capacity figure for its Ho Chi Minh City sites. A single 52MW Evolution DC campus, if built as planned, would exceed the entire national total Coloprice can currently verify — a scale shift, not an incremental addition. Our Ho Chi Minh City market note already flagged Gaw Capital’s arrival as the first sign of foreign capital underwriting Vietnamese capacity rather than only leasing it from domestic telecom incumbents; a Warburg Pincus-backed consortium securing a 50-year lease is a considerably larger version of the same shift.

Vietnam’s appeal on paper has not changed: commercial power runs about $0.078/kWh nationally, under a third of Singapore’s $0.262 and below Thailand’s $0.128, per Coloprice’s colocation price index. What STT GDC’s exit shows is that cheap power alone did not make its specific site work — a mid-length land-use term was reportedly enough to sink a project already in joint-venture form. Buyers evaluating Vietnamese sites should treat land-tenure length as a real due-diligence line item, not a formality, and should note that Evolution DC’s newly granted lease runs a full 50 years from this year — a structural advantage over shorter legacy tenures like VTH’s.

What we don’t know

Neither report gives a construction timeline, a first-power date, or confirmation of Tier IV certification for the Evolution DC site — Tier III+ is the current status, and Tier IV is described as a target. It is also not disclosed whether STT GDC, having exited this specific joint venture, is winding down its broader Vietnam ambitions or redirecting toward a different structure or site; the company has pursued Vietnam expansion with VNG since at least 2024, and this filing covers only the VTH entity. Coloprice will update its Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City catalog entries once either project files a construction permit or discloses a completion date.