Indonesia's AI data centres: Batam, West Java, power and permits

Indonesia is trying to become Southeast Asia's next big home for AI data centres. Batam, close to Singapore, hosts several large projects, and West Java has a 640 megawatt campus under construction. But permits are spread across agencies, power is still billed at commercial rates, and a governor halted one campus on 30 September 2026.

Most coverage of Southeast Asian AI infrastructure focuses on Singapore and Johor. Indonesia gets a paragraph. This post gives it the space it needs, because its situation is different: a very large domestic market, land that Singapore lacks, and a regulatory system still taking shape. It draws mainly on reporting from Indonesian and regional outlets, because few official documents on these projects are published in English. Where a figure comes from a single outlet, the post says so.

For the neighbours, read the Singapore and Malaysia overview, and the regional Asia Pacific map.

Key numbers at a glance

• Indonesia data centre market size: about US$1.44 billion in 2025 and US$1.83 billion in 2026, growing at 13.71 percent a year to about US$3.48 billion by 2031 (BKPM, citing Mordor Intelligence, reported by Indonesia Business Post, 24 July 2026).
• A different estimate: US$2.81 billion in 2025 rising to US$6.08 billion by 2031 (Research and Markets, reported by Indonesia Business Post, 1 October 2026).
• PT DCI Indonesia installed capacity: 128 megawatts, with a target of 2,000 megawatts (company public expose, 30 March 2026, reported by Indonesia Business Post).
• BDx Jatiluhur campus (CGK4), West Java: 640 megawatt campus, 120 megawatts of IT capacity in phases, first building due early 2027 (Indonesia Business Post, 24 September 2026).
• BDx grid capacity secured from PLN across three Indonesian AI campuses: over 1.2 GVA (same report).
• Firmus and Nvidia campus in Batam: 360 megawatts, operations from the first quarter of 2027, access to as many as 170,000 Nvidia chips in 2027 and 2028 (Indonesia Business Post, 29 June 2026).
• Firmus contracted purchase agreements: US$25 billion to US$30 billion over six years, and a US$5.5 billion valuation in an April 2026 round (company statements as reported, unaudited).
• RangeIDC and Equator Gate System Batam: US$5 billion AI data centre on 30 hectares in Nongsa, Batam, announced 25 May 2026 (Free Malaysia Today, via ANTARA).
• NeutraDC Nxera Batam: 18 megawatts initially, expandable to 54 megawatts, topping off on 30 October 2025 (Jawa Pos).
• Chinese investment in Indonesia, 2021 to first half of 2026: US$38.34 billion (BKPM, as reported 24 July 2026).
• Indonesia's incentive offer: 25 special economic zones and 181 industrial estates (BKPM, as reported 24 July 2026).

Why Indonesia wants this business

Indonesia has a large population, a growing digital economy and a long coastline of islands. A deputy minister at the communications and digital ministry, Komdigi, said in July 2025 that ASEAN's digital economy is projected to reach US$120 billion by 2027, with Indonesia contributing about 40 percent. Komdigi described building strategic AI nodes in industrial areas and called Batam a focal point, according to Infobank News.

An economist at the research group CORE, Yusuf Rendy Manilet, gave an outside view in the Indonesia Business Post on 24 July 2026. He argued that Indonesia differs from Singapore and Malaysia because they largely serve international demand, while Indonesia has domestic demand from banking, fintech, government services and e-commerce that is harder to move abroad. He expects data localisation rules, which require certain data to stay in the country, to keep raising demand for national data centres. He also noted that Indonesia has more land than Singapore.

That is an analyst's opinion, not a settled fact, but it explains the strategy. Singapore and Malaysia face limits on land, electricity and water, as the sibling posts explain. Indonesia pitches itself as the place with room.

Batam: the island next to Singapore

Batam is in the Riau Islands, a short distance from Singapore. Its appeal is proximity, low latency links to Singapore and an investment friendly free trade zone. Three kinds of project there show the range.

The first is a telecom backed colocation campus. NeutraDC Nxera Batam, owned through Telkom Indonesia, held a topping off ceremony, marking the completion of the main structure, on 30 October 2025, according to Jawa Pos. It starts at 18 megawatts and can grow in stages to 54 megawatts, in the Kabil industrial area. The building received an Uptime Institute Tier III certification of design documents, and is designed as an AI ready campus. The article names Nxera and Medco as collaborators and quotes a Singtel executive calling it a step to strengthen cross border connectivity. It gives no start date for operations and no investment figure.

The second is a large AI campus. Indonesia Business Post reported on 29 June 2026 that Firmus Technologies, an Australian AI infrastructure company, and Nvidia plan a 360 megawatt Nvidia DGX AI Factory campus in Batam, built by DayOne, with operations starting in the first quarter of 2027. Firmus is described as getting access to as many as 170,000 Nvidia accelerators during 2027 and 2028, with contracted purchase agreements of US$25 billion to US$30 billion over the first six years and a US$5.5 billion valuation from an April round led by Coatue Management. These are private company figures reported by the press. They are unaudited, and the contract value is not the same as money received. The co-chief executive is quoted saying the business is built on the demand it sees and the contracts it executes.

The third is a Chinese backed project. On 25 May 2026, Free Malaysia Today, citing ANTARA, reported that Equator Gate System Batam, backed by the Shenzhen listed RangeIDC, announced a US$5 billion AI data centre on 30 hectares in Nongsa. A power purchase agreement, a long term contract to buy electricity at agreed terms, was signed with PLN Batam, a subsidiary of the state utility. The report gives no megawatt figure, no power source and no completion date, and says BP Batam, the free trade zone authority, will oversee the project through a fast track mechanism. It says this is RangeIDC's first international location for a high density AI data centre.

Note how much is missing. A dollar figure without a capacity figure, or a capacity figure without a date, tells you an intention, not a delivery. The CORE economist made the same point in the 24 July report: many announced investments remain at the commitment stage and have not become completed projects.

West Java: the biggest campus and its first test

The largest single project in the reports is BDx's Jatiluhur campus in Purwakarta, West Java. The Singapore based operator broke ground on 22 September 2026, according to Indonesia Business Post. The campus is 640 megawatts overall, with 120 megawatts of IT capacity delivered in phases across six planned buildings. It sits about 5 kilometres from the Jatiluhur Dam and roughly two hours from Jakarta.

Two technical points are worth explaining. The article says BDx has 845 MVA of grid capacity from PLN for the site. MVA stands for mega volt amperes, a measure of apparent power in electrical equipment, and is close to but not the same as megawatts. BDx says it has over 1.2 GVA, or gigavolt amperes, secured across its three Indonesian AI campuses. And the campus uses direct to chip liquid cooling that supports racks of up to 500 kilowatts. A kilowatt is one thousand watts, and a normal server rack draws a fraction of that, which shows how dense AI hardware has become. BDx is also pursuing a hydroelectric arrangement with the state run water company Perum Jasa Tirta II for lower carbon power, the report says.

Then came the halt. On 30 September 2026, West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi told company representatives that construction must stop, according to a 1 October report. The reported reason was that required permits had not been issued and the environmental impact assessment was incomplete. The governor said the halt was not due to a violation of environmental rules. He also raised concerns about water availability, since some data centres have been linked to water shortages, and said he supports investment that meets environmental requirements. BDx said it was still confirming the details.

Two inconsistencies in the coverage are worth flagging. One article calls the campus 650 megawatts and another 640, and the 1 October article says the governor's statement was posted on 29 September, a day before the 30 September order. The reports do not explain either difference, and this post uses 640 megawatts, the figure in the more detailed article.

The lesson is not that West Java is closed. It is that groundbreaking and permits are separate steps, and a project can start before every approval is in place. Whether permits have since been issued and construction resumed had not been publicly confirmed as of 19 October 2026.

The permit and power problem

The official picture of regulation is blunt. In an April 2026 interview reported by Indonesia Business Post, Komdigi's director general for digital infrastructure, Wayan Toni Supriyanto, said the ministry was working with the trade ministry because no dedicated licensing framework for data centres exists yet. It was also coordinating with PLN on power and with the environment and forestry ministry on water and green energy requirements. The report says permits are currently fragmented across several agencies. Komdigi said it was preparing a master plan for private sector development to prevent overconcentration in one region, and wants to push data centre development toward eastern Indonesia. No timeline for the master plan was given.

On power, two views sit side by side. The energy minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, speaking at Electricity Connect 2026 on 22 September, said islands are available, that solar, hydropower, geothermal and wind could support data centres, that PLN will prepare additional capacity according to investors' needs, and that electricity supply will not constrain data centre development. He said he expects production costs to become more competitive than in other countries.

The CORE economist took a more cautious line. He said supplying stable electricity across an archipelago is difficult, that operating costs are less competitive than neighbouring countries, and that data centre electricity is still billed at commercial rates even though energy is one of the largest costs. He said Indonesia needs more competitive long term power pricing to compete with Malaysia, and that Malaysia leads in construction speed.

Both are statements, not data. A minister promising supply is a policy commitment and an economist describing costs is an assessment. Indonesia has no published tariff schedule specific to data centres, so a direct price comparison with its neighbours is not possible.

The incentives, according to the 24 July 2026 report, include 25 special economic zones and 181 industrial estates, risk based licensing through the Online Single Submission system, tax holidays and allowances, and import duty exemptions on machinery.

The domestic players and the early warning signs

Not all the capacity is foreign. PT DCI Indonesia, listed as DCII, said at a public expose on 30 March 2026 that it had 128 megawatts installed across its sites, with a target of 2,000 megawatts. The company lists a 73 megawatt campus at Cibitung that can scale to 220, a 27 megawatt campus at Karawang with potential above 600, a Bintan site in the Riau Islands under development that could scale above 1,000 megawatts, and two small edge sites in Jakarta and Surabaya. It says it can deliver a data centre in under 12 months and has more than 270 customers. These are company claims reported by the press.

The market also has stress points. A Telkom Indonesia data centre subsidiary, PT Media Nusantara Data Global, was declared bankrupt by a Jakarta commercial court on 25 May 2026, after it could not repay debts, according to Indonesia Business Post on 5 August 2026. Telkom owns 55 percent of it. The article also says Telkom is seeking a strategic partner for its data centre business as part of a wider restructuring. One bankruptcy does not define a market, but it is a reminder that supply is not all AI campuses and that smaller operators carry financing risk.

Parliament has also moved on data governance. The House approved a One Data Indonesia bill in October 2026, according to Indonesia Business Post, but the article does not discuss data centres or localisation, so this post does not treat it as a data centre rule.

What to check before you trust an Indonesian capacity announcement

A short checklist works across markets, and Indonesia needs it more than most:

• Is there a megawatt figure, and is it IT load, grid supply or the whole campus?
• Is there a date, and is it for the first phase or the full build?
• Does the project have a power contract, and with whom? PLN Batam signing a power purchase agreement is a stronger signal than an announcement alone.
• Are permits and environmental assessments issued? The West Java halt shows why this matters.
• Are the money figures contracts, funding or valuation? They are not the same thing.

For how the large AI labs think about capacity and contracts, see OpenAI compute commitments and Stargate.

What is firm and what is uncertain

Firm, because a named official or company statement was reported with a date:

• The 22 September 2026 groundbreaking at Jatiluhur and the 30 September halt order.
• The Komdigi statement that permits are fragmented and no dedicated licensing framework exists.
• The Batam announcements by Firmus, RangeIDC and NeutraDC, as announcements.

Uncertain:

• Indonesia's total operating data centre capacity has no official published figure in the sources cited here, so none is given.
• Market size figures disagree between two research firms, so treat both as rough.
• Whether the BDx permits have since been issued.
• The 650 versus 640 megawatt difference and the date difference noted above.
• Private company figures, including Firmus contract values and valuation, are unaudited.
• No dedicated data centre electricity tariff schedule has been published; data centres are reported to pay commercial rates.
• The ministers' supply assurances have not been tested against actual connection times.

What to watch next

• Whether construction at Jatiluhur resumes and on what conditions.
• Komdigi's master plan and any dedicated licensing framework.
• Whether the Batam projects reach their stated dates, such as the Firmus campus in the first quarter of 2027.
• Any change to commercial rate billing for data centres.
• Progress of projects in eastern Indonesia and geothermal backed sites in North Sulawesi, which were reported only as plans.

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Quick check

Sources

• Indonesia Business Post, BDx halt in West Java, 1 October 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, BDx breaks ground on 640MW campus, 24 September 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, Can Indonesia become Southeast Asia's next data center hub, 24 July 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, Indonesia opens islands for data center expansion, 22 September 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, data center expansion east, 1 May 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, Firmus and Nvidia in Batam, 29 June 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, DCI Indonesia profile, 1 April 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, Telkom subsidiary declared bankrupt, 5 August 2026
• Indonesia Business Post, House approves One Data Indonesia Bill, 7 October 2026
• Free Malaysia Today, Batam set to host US$5bil AI data centre project, 25 May 2026
• Jawa Pos, NeutraDC Nxera Batam topping off, 30 October 2025
• Infobank News, Batam as an AI development area in ASEAN, 11 July 2025

Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.