APAC AI infrastructure, one desk across very different markets.
APAC is not one market. Export treatment, power availability and residency law change at every border, and a deal that works in Tokyo can be unshippable to the wrong destination. The desk's job in this region is knowing the difference before money moves.
Five markets, five rulebooks.
Related: The Philippines desk
Singapore is the region's connectivity hub with world-class facilities and tightly managed power: new capacity is allocated, not just built, which makes secured space there genuinely scarce. Japan is in the middle of a national AI infrastructure push with strong government backing and rapidly growing GPU capacity. Korea combines a deep hardware industry with aggressive AI investment. India brings enormous demand, data-localisation requirements in regulated sectors, and an import regime that rewards getting the paperwork right the first time.
Layered over all of it is US advanced-chip export policy, which treats different APAC destinations differently and changes with the policy cycle. Destination screening is therefore the first step of any APAC deal we run: end user, jurisdiction and re-export risk verified before terms are discussed. It is slower on day one and dramatically faster in month three, and it is why the allocation stays available to our buyers.
Landed cost, by jurisdiction.
Every APAC deal is priced landed: freight and insurance at node weights, import duties by tariff line, local indirect charges and their recoverability, and importer-of-record where you do not hold an import licence in the destination. The spread between an ex-works quote and a landed cost varies dramatically across the region, and comparing suppliers on ex-works numbers alone is how APAC buyers overpay.
For latency-sensitive inference, geography inside the region matters as much as the border: we place the training layer where capacity is cheap and available, and the inference layer close to the users, connected privately.
Start from what is verified today.
Current verified lines, lead times and indicative pricing are public on the live inventory. The buying structures are on the procurement desk and the leasing desk, and the decision frameworks are in buy versus lease and cloud versus bare metal.
Asked first, answered straight.
Most of them, and the honest answer is destination-specific under US export policy. Tell us the country and the end user, and screening gives you a real answer quickly. If a destination cannot clear, we say so and stop rather than improvising.
Singapore capacity is genuinely constrained and mostly allocated rather than advertised. Real options exist for the right requirements, and nearby alternatives with Singapore connectivity often deliver the same outcome at better availability.
Yes. Where a regulator requires data to stay in-country, that constraint drives the design: named local facility for the regulated layer, offshore capacity for what may leave, private connectivity between them.
Either you, if you hold the licences in the destination, or us through the IOR service. In most APAC jurisdictions IOR done properly is the difference between a two-week clearance and a two-month one.
Working through this on a real requirement?
Twenty minutes with the desk, no pitch and no quote at the end of it. Tell us roughly what you need and we will come back within one business day.
Sent. We are on it.
Your enquiry has landed with the desk. Acknowledged within one hour.