Pakistan Data Center Market Size, Share & Forecast to 2035

The Pakistan Data Center Market is valued at USD 583.50 million in 2026 and is projected to reach USD 3.45 billion by 2035, up from USD 333.40 million in 2025, a CAGR of 26.32% from 2025 to 2035 (DC Market Insights estimate). What moves the money in Pakistan is not land or demand but grid access: the Finance Division set aside 2,000 megawatts (MW) of surplus power for bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in May 2025, against a national fleet that DC Market Insights counts at only about 95 MW of IT load at the end of 2025. The first large draw on that headroom came on 24 July 2026, when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif opened the 8.5 MW Sky47 Karakorum-01 facility in Rawalpindi, the largest single hall in the country (Source: Radio Pakistan). The Pakistan Data Center Market covers capital spend inside Pakistani data centers on IT infrastructure, power solutions, cooling systems and general construction; DC Market Insights builds it as 12 MW of new IT capacity × USD 6.50 million of facility cost per MW, plus AI IT fit-out, AI refresh and conventional IT spend on the installed base, which together equal USD 333.40 million in 2025.

AI workloads are the fastest growing segment at 43.75% a year, from USD 55.71 million in 2025 to USD 2.10 billion by 2035, because each AI MW carries about USD 35.00 million of graphics processing unit (GPU) servers and networking against USD 2.50 million of yearly conventional IT spend per MW. Balochistan and Other Areas is the fastest growing region at 32.94% a year, as Gwadar’s port zone and Quetta’s government rooms add first halls from a small base; Sindh (Karachi) stays the largest region with 38.0% of 2025 spend.

Key Market Statistics: How Big Is the Pakistan Data Center Market in 2026?

DC Market Insights values the Pakistan Data Center Market at USD 583.50 million in 2026, 75.0% above 2025. Sky47 and the first AI halls lift new IT capacity from 12 MW to 22 MW.

• Market size 2025: USD 333.40 million
• Market size 2026: USD 583.50 million
• Market size 2030: USD 1.94 billion
• Market size 2035: USD 3.45 billion
• CAGR 2025–2035: 26.32% (low case 21.24%, high case 30.05%)
• Largest segment: IT Infrastructure, USD 255.40 million (76.6% of 2025)
• Fastest segment: AI Workloads, 43.75% a year
• Leading region: Sindh (Karachi), USD 126.69 million in 2025
• Fastest region: Balochistan and Other Areas, 32.94% a year
• Largest hub: Karachi, USD 120.36 million in 2025
• Market leader: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), with about 18% of 2025 spend (DC Market Insights estimate)

How Much Did Pakistan Spend on Data Center Halls in 2025, and Where Is It Heading?

The Pakistan Data Center Market size was valued at USD 114.25 million in 2020, reached USD 333.40 million in 2025, and is anticipated to reach USD 3.45 billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 26.32% during the forecast period.

Attribute	Value
Historical period	2020–2024
Base year	2025
Forecast period	2026–2035
Market size 2025	USD 333.40 million
Market size 2026	USD 583.50 million
CAGR 2025–2035	26.32%
Market size 2035	USD 3.45 billion

Growth runs at 23.89% a year from 2020 to 2025 and 26.32% from 2025 to 2035 because Pakistan moves from about 6 MW of new IT load a year to 60 MW by 2030, with AI taking 35% of that new load by 2030 against 10% in 2025. DC Market Insights keeps the 2026–2035 build at 554 MW, which is 27.7% of the 2,000 MW the Finance Division reserved for crypto mining and AI data centers.

What Should Investors Take Away From Pakistan’s Data Center Build-Out?

Four takeaways explain why spend rises from USD 333.40 million in 2025 to USD 3.45 billion by 2035.

• Spend rises 10.3 times from USD 333.40 million in 2025 to USD 3.45 billion by 2035 because installed IT load grows from 95 MW to 620 MW.
• AI workloads take 60.8% of 2035 spend against 16.7% in 2025 because an AI MW needs USD 35.00 million of IT at fit-out, 14 times the USD 2.50 million a conventional MW spends each year.
• Grid headroom, not demand, sets the pace: the 2,000 MW reservation covers 3.6 times the 554 MW DC Market Insights expects to be built by 2035.
• Electricity cost is the main risk: China Mobile Pakistan (Zong) asked for the industrial power tariff in January 2026 because commercial rates erode data center margins.

What Counts as Pakistan Data Center Spend, and What Is Left Out?

The Pakistan Data Center Market is the USD 333.40 million of 2025 capital spend that builds and equips data center halls located in Pakistan, counted by the year the money is spent.

Included

IT infrastructure (servers, storage, GPU systems and in-hall networking: USD 255.40 million in 2025), power solutions (switchgear, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, generators and power distribution: USD 29.64 million), cooling systems (USD 16.07 million) and general construction (shell, fit-out and fire and security systems: USD 32.29 million).

Excluded

Land, electricity bills, colocation and cloud service revenue, captive power plants, telecom towers and the 2,000 MW of bitcoin mining load are excluded; a mining hall counts only if it is converted to AI or cloud IT use.

How the segments fit together

Four component lines sum to the total every year; the same total is then split by workload, data center type, end user, five regions and 12 hubs, and each split sums to USD 333.40 million in 2025. The global picture sits in the Data Center Market report, which measures the same four components worldwide; this Pakistan edition is the country cut and does not repeat global figures.

Why Do Pakistan Data Center Market Estimates Differ?

Estimates differ because the 2026 figure of USD 583.50 million counts only capital spend inside Pakistani halls, while broader definitions add service revenue, telecom networks and power plants, and some reach USD 1.5 billion for 2025.

A broader definition adds colocation rent, cloud subscriptions, managed services, connectivity and the cost of bitcoin mining sites powered from the 2,000 MW allocation. Those items are real spending but they are revenue streams of operators, not the equipment and buildings that operators buy, and counting both doubles the same money. The out-of-scope terms in this Pakistan edition are colocation revenue, cloud services revenue, bitcoin mining, telecom towers, captive power plants and land. In-scope buyers include banks, telecom operators, government and defence, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that buy racks and servers in enterprise rooms.

Element	In this report	Why
IT infrastructure	Yes: USD 255.40 million (2025)	Equipment bought for halls
Power, cooling, construction	Yes: USD 78.00 million (2025)	Facility build cost
Colocation and cloud revenue	No	Operator revenue, not spend
Bitcoin mining sites	No	Not data center IT
Captive power plants and land	No	Energy and real estate

Which Pakistani Policy Decisions Decide Who Gets Grid Power for Data Centers?

Four public policy instruments shape where the USD 3.45 billion of 2035 spend lands, alongside the 2,000 MW power reservation that sets the ceiling on AI load.

• National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025, approved by the Federal Cabinet in July 2025, with training for 200,000 people a year and a National AI Fund (Source: MoITT).
• Cloud First Policy 2022 (MoITT), which directs federal workloads to certified cloud providers and data centers hosted in Pakistan.
• State Bank of Pakistan outsourcing and cloud rules for banks, which keep core banking data on certified local infrastructure.
• Special Technology Zones Authority incentives (tax holidays and customs exemptions), which Zong asked to extend to cloud and data center units in January 2026.

Why Is Pakistan Data Center Demand Jumping 75.0% in 2026?

Three Pakistan-specific forces lift new IT capacity from 12 MW in 2025 to 22 MW in 2026 and 60 MW by 2030, which is why spend grows 75.0% in 2026 alone.

The 2,000 MW surplus-power reservation of May 2025

According to the Finance Division statement of 25 May 2025, Pakistan reserved 2,000 MW of surplus generation as the “first phase” of a national initiative to power bitcoin mining and AI data centers. Pakistan has about 45,000 MW of installed generation against a summer peak near 30,000 MW (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)), so the idle capacity charges paid to independent power producers give the state a reason to sell power to new loads. DC Market Insights assumes AI and cloud halls use 554 MW of IT load (about 720 MW at a power usage effectiveness of 1.3) between 2026 and 2035, or 36% of the reservation.

Sovereign cloud: Sky47 Karakorum-01 and its Karachi and Lahore copies

Sky47 Karakorum-01 opened in Rawalpindi on 24 July 2026 with 8.5 MW, built with ZTE Corporation (ZTE) and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), and the Prime Minister said the facility will be replicated in Karachi and Lahore (Source: Radio Pakistan, 24 July 2026). A 5 MW Sky47 site at Port Qasim, Karachi, is next, according to Sky47 chief executive Hassan Abbas. At USD 6.70 million of facility cost per MW in 2026, the two Sky47 sites alone represent about USD 90 million of facility spend.

Gul Ahmed and Huawei: a USD 230 million Tier III campus for 2027

According to Gul Ahmed Energy Group, its venture Quantum Global Data Centre (QGDC) announced on 6 June 2026 a Tier III campus with Huawei Pakistan, with USD 230 million of initial investment and up to USD 600 million over three to four years, and commercial operation in 2027. QGDC chairman Danish Iqbal put Pakistan’s yearly spending on AI technologies and services at USD 700–800 million. DC Market Insights books 35 MW of new IT load in 2027, the year QGDC opens, against 22 MW in 2026.

DC Exclusive: The Pakistan Grid-Headroom Project Tracker — 6 Named Projects Against 2,000 MW

Six named Pakistani projects add about 40 MW of known IT load against the 2,000 MW power reservation. This tracker is a DC Market Insights estimate modelled from 14 inputs (project MW, opening year and the facility cost per MW in each year).

Project	Hub	IT MW	Opening	Note
Sky47 Karakorum-01	Rawalpindi	8.5	2026 (open)	Sovereign AI cloud, ZTE
Sky47 Port Qasim	Karachi	5.0	2026–2027	Second Sky47 site
Sky47 Lahore	Lahore	5.0 (DCMI est.)	2027–2028	Replication announced July 2026
QGDC Tier III campus	Karachi (DCMI est.)	15.0 (DCMI est.)	2027	USD 230 million initial, Huawei
TWA SMW-6 data center	Karachi	3.0 (DCMI est.)	2026	Cable landing site
Telenor and Data Vault AI cloud	Islamabad	3.0 (DCMI est.)	2025 (open)	First local AI cloud

The six projects total 39.5 MW, which covers 70% of the 57 MW of new IT load DC Market Insights books for 2026 and 2027; the remaining 17.5 MW comes from bank, telecom and government rooms. The whole 554 MW pipeline to 2035 uses 27.7% of the 2,000 MW reservation, so grid allocation is not the binding limit before 2035; tariff and financing are.

How Are Sovereign Clouds and Subsea Cables Reshaping Pakistan’s Data Center Build?

Pakistan is moving from telecom-owned server rooms of 1–3 MW to carrier-neutral halls of 5–20 MW, and AI rises from 10% of new IT load in 2025 to 35% by 2030.

Locally hosted AI clouds for banks and the state

Telenor Pakistan and Data Vault launched the first locally hosted AI data center and sovereign AI cloud in November 2025 (Source: Telenor Pakistan), and Sky47 now offers GPU capacity from Rawalpindi. DC Market Insights counts 2.04 MW of AI IT load at the end of 2025, rising to 68.38 MW by 2030.

New subsea capacity lands in Karachi

Transworld Associates (TWA) onboarded the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) cable in November 2025, adding 4 terabits per second (Tbps) to Pakistan’s 13.2 Tbps of international bandwidth (about 30% more), and its Karachi data center under construction connects to the cable, according to TWA. Bandwidth at the landing point is why Sindh (Karachi) holds 38.0% of 2025 spend.

Tier III certification becomes the purchase test

Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw (NED) University of Engineering and Technology opened what it calls Pakistan’s first Tier III-certified data center in February 2025 (Source: NED University), and both Sky47 and QGDC market Tier III designs. DC Market Insights expects Tier III and above halls to take 62% of 2035 facility spend against about 40% in 2025.

What Holds Back Pakistan Data Center Growth: Tariffs or the Rupee?

Power price and currency risk are the two limits that keep the base case at 60 MW a year by 2030 rather than the 150 MW the 2,000 MW reservation could support.

Commercial power tariffs

China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak, trading as Zong) asked the MoITT in January 2026 to apply the industrial power tariff to its cloud and data center units, calling energy cost “a key factor undermining the competitiveness” of local data centers. Electricity is the largest operating cost of a hall; at 1.3 power usage effectiveness, every 1 US cent per kilowatt-hour adds about USD 114,000 a year per MW of IT load.

Imported equipment priced in US dollars

About 77% of 2025 spend (USD 255.40 million of IT infrastructure) is imported hardware priced in US dollars, so a weaker rupee raises local budgets one-for-one. The low case of USD 2.29 billion in 2035 assumes 28% less new capacity because of this exposure.

Where Can Suppliers Win Pakistan Data Center Orders Before 2030?

The two largest openings are GPU hall fit-outs and the move of bank servers into colocation, and AI IT fit-out alone is 35.1% of 2030 spend (DC Market Insights estimate).

AI IT fit-outs for GPU halls

New AI halls need GPU servers, high-speed fabrics and liquid-ready power trains, about USD 35.00 million of IT per AI MW in 2025. Fit-out of new AI MW is the fastest-moving line item: DC Market Insights books 21 MW of new AI load in 2030 alone, 17.5 times the 1.2 MW of 2025.

Colocation for banks moving out of server rooms

Colocation data centers grow 25.94% a year to 2035 as banks and fintechs meet State Bank of Pakistan outsourcing and data-residency rules in third-party Tier III halls.

How Much Does a Pakistan Data Center Cost per MW and per Rack?

A Pakistani data center costs about USD 6.50 million per MW of IT load in 2025, before servers (DC Market Insights estimate). That is about 40% below the USD 10.70 million global average because labour, land and civil works cost less.

Year	Facility cost per MW	AI IT per AI MW	Conventional IT spend per installed MW-year
2020	USD 5.61 million	USD 35.00 million	USD 1.65 million
2025	USD 6.50 million	USD 35.00 million	USD 2.50 million
2030	USD 7.54 million	USD 32.50 million	USD 2.50 million
2035	USD 8.74 million	USD 30.00 million	USD 2.50 million

Public anchors support these values: Jazz Digital Park in Islamabad cost more than USD 8 million for 3 MW and over 300 racks (about USD 2.70 million per MW in 2022, a modest telecom build), and Data World Pakistan (DWP) Group says a 15–20 MW data center needs nearly USD 100 million (USD 5.00–6.70 million per MW). At 6 kilowatts per rack, USD 6.50 million per MW equals about USD 39,000 per rack of facility cost.

Which Pakistan Data Center Segment Carries the Value: IT, Power, Cooling or Construction?

IT infrastructure leads with USD 255.40 million, or 76.6% of 2025 spend, and AI workloads are the fastest growing segment at 43.75% a year to 2035.

By Component

IT infrastructure carries the most value because conventional refresh on 95 MW of installed IT load costs about USD 207 million a year.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025–2035
IT Infrastructure	255.40	76.6%	2,820.29	27.15%
Power Solutions	29.64	8.9%	239.00	23.21%
Cooling Systems	16.07	4.8%	140.89	24.25%
General Construction	32.29	9.7%	249.07	22.67%

By Workload

AI workloads rise from 16.7% to 60.8% of spend as AI takes 40% of new IT load by 2035.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025–2035
AI Workloads	55.71	16.7%	2,098.38	43.75%
Conventional Workloads	277.69	83.3%	1,350.87	17.14%

By Data Center Type

Hyperscale and sovereign cloud halls grow fastest as Sky47 and QGDC add carrier-neutral capacity.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025–2035
Colocation Data Centers	113.36	34.0%	1,138.25	25.94%
Hyperscale and Sovereign Cloud Data Centers	53.34	16.0%	1,448.69	39.12%
Enterprise and Government Data Centers	166.70	50.0%	862.31	17.86%

By End User

IT and telecom buyers grow fastest because operators build the cloud halls that others rent.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025–2035
BFSI	90.02	27.0%	620.87	21.30%
IT and Telecom	110.02	33.0%	1,448.68	29.40%
Government and Defence	80.02	24.0%	827.82	26.32%
Other End Users	53.34	16.0%	551.88	26.32%

Where in Pakistan Is Data Center Spend Growing Fastest: Karachi, Punjab or Gwadar?

Sindh (Karachi) leads with USD 126.69 million in 2025, and Balochistan and Other Areas grows fastest at 32.94% a year. Gwadar’s port zone and Quetta’s government rooms add first halls there from a USD 10.00 million base.

Region	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025–2035
Sindh (Karachi)	126.69	38.0%	1,241.73	25.64%
Punjab	90.02	27.0%	1,034.77	27.66%
Islamabad Capital Territory	93.35	28.0%	827.82	24.39%
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	13.34	4.0%	172.46	29.17%
Balochistan and Other Areas	10.00	3.0%	172.47	32.94%

Sindh (Karachi)

Karachi hosts every international cable landing, the SEA-ME-WE 6 data center of TWA and the Port Qasim Sky47 site, so it keeps the largest share at 36.0% in 2035.

Punjab

Rawalpindi gained the 8.5 MW Sky47 Karakorum-01 hall in July 2026 (Source: Radio Pakistan) and Lahore is next, lifting Punjab from 27.0% to 30.0% of spend by 2035.

Islamabad Capital Territory

Federal ministries, the State Bank’s banking clients and Jazz Digital Park keep Islamabad at 28.0% of 2025 spend, easing to 24.0% by 2035 as new halls move to Punjab and Sindh.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Peshawar grows at 29.17% a year from USD 13.34 million as provincial e-government and university clouds add small halls.

Balochistan and Other Areas

Gwadar’s port-side sites and Quetta’s government rooms grow from 3.0% to 5.0% of spend, the fastest regional gain.

Which Pakistani Cities Host the Most Data Center Spend?

Karachi leads with USD 120.36 million in 2025, and Gwadar is the fastest growing hub at 38.45% a year among the 12 hubs DC Market Insights tracks.

Rank	Hub	Region	2025 (USD million)	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025–2035
1	Karachi	Sindh (Karachi)	120.36	1,154.81	25.37%
2	Islamabad	Islamabad Capital Territory	93.35	827.82	24.39%
3	Lahore	Punjab	55.81	569.12	26.14%
4	Rawalpindi	Punjab	19.80	248.34	28.78%
5	Peshawar	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	11.34	137.97	28.39%
6	Hyderabad	Sindh (Karachi)	6.33	86.92	29.95%
7	Quetta	Balochistan and Other Areas	5.50	68.99	28.78%
8	Faisalabad	Punjab	5.40	82.78	31.39%
9	Multan	Punjab	3.60	51.74	30.54%
10	Gwadar	Balochistan and Other Areas	3.00	77.61	38.45%
11	Sialkot	Punjab	2.70	41.39	31.39%
12	Gujranwala	Punjab	2.70	41.39	31.39%

Faisalabad is the fastest large inland hub at 31.39% a year, as textile exporters and banks in Punjab buy their first colocation racks outside Lahore.

What If Pakistan’s Grid Deals Slip? 2035 Pakistan Data Center Forecast Scenarios

The 2035 Pakistan Data Center Market ranges from USD 2.29 billion in the low case to USD 4.61 billion in the high case, around the USD 3.45 billion base case.

Scenario	New IT MW 2026–2035	AI share of new load 2035	2035 size	CAGR 2025–2035
Low	399 MW	30%	USD 2.29 billion	21.24%
Base	554 MW	40%	USD 3.45 billion	26.32%
High	693 MW	48%	USD 4.61 billion	30.05%

The low case reflects tariff relief that never arrives and a weaker rupee; the high case reflects an industrial tariff for data centers plus Sky47 copies in Karachi and Lahore at full size.

Who Builds and Runs Pakistan’s Data Centers, and What Share Does PTCL Hold?

PTCL leads the Pakistan Data Center Market with about 18% of 2025 spend, and the top five operators hold about 52% (DC Market Insights estimate). The five are PTCL, Jazz, China Mobile Pakistan (Zong), Sky47 and Nayatel, ranked by their disclosed and estimated MW in service.

• Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL)
• Jazz (VEON Group)
• China Mobile Pakistan (Zong)
• Sky47 Limited
• Nayatel
• Telenor Pakistan
• Data Vault Pakistan
• Quantum Global Data Centre (Gul Ahmed Energy Group)
• Transworld Associates (TWA)
• Multinet Pakistan
• Cybernet
• National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC)
• Data World Pakistan (DWP) Group
• Huawei Technologies
• ZTE Corporation
• Schneider Electric
• Vertiv

Jazz Digital Park in Islamabad, opened in January 2022 by VEON Group, has 3 MW and more than 300 racks expandable to 450, built for over USD 8 million, according to Jazz. Huawei and ZTE supply both the QGDC campus and Sky47 Karakorum-01, giving Chinese vendors most of the 2026–2027 power and IT orders, while Schneider Electric and Vertiv supply UPS and cooling to bank and telecom rooms.

What Happened in Pakistan’s Data Center Market Between February 2025 and July 2026?

Six dated events between February 2025 and July 2026 added about 12 MW of operating IT load and a 2,000 MW power reservation.

• In February 2025, NED University of Engineering and Technology opened a Tier III-certified data center in Karachi (Source: NED University).
• In May 2025, the Finance Division reserved 2,000 MW of surplus power for bitcoin mining and AI data centers (Source: Finance Division).
• In July 2025, the Federal Cabinet approved the National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025 (Source: MoITT).
• In November 2025, Telenor Pakistan and Data Vault launched a locally hosted AI data center and sovereign AI cloud, and TWA onboarded the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable (Source: Telenor Pakistan; TWA).
• In June 2026, Quantum Global Data Centre and Huawei Pakistan announced a USD 230 million Tier III campus for 2027 (Source: Gul Ahmed Energy Group).
• In July 2026, Sky47 Karakorum-01 opened in Rawalpindi with 8.5 MW (Source: Radio Pakistan).

How the Model Works: DC Market Insights’ Pakistan Data Center Receipts (Methodology)

DC Market Insights built the Pakistan model bottom-up, and the 2025 receipt is USD 333.40 million. The model uses 16 years of new IT capacity (6 MW in 2020 to 72 MW in 2035), 95 MW of installed IT load at the end of 2025 and 1% yearly retirement, priced with USD 6.50 million of facility cost per MW (+3% a year), USD 35.00 million of AI IT per AI MW, 20% yearly AI refresh and USD 2.50 million of conventional IT spend per installed MW; the 2025 receipt is USD 78.00 million facility + USD 42.00 million AI IT + USD 5.91 million AI refresh + USD 207.48 million conventional IT = USD 333.40 million. The method follows the DC Market Insights research methodology.

Three bound checks keep the model honest. Ceiling one: 554 MW of new IT load to 2035 is 27.7% of the 2,000 MW reservation. Ceiling two: 620 MW of IT load in 2035 at 1.3 power usage effectiveness draws about 806 MW, 2.7% of the 30,000 MW summer peak. Floor: the six tracked projects alone need about USD 264.65 million of facility spend across 2026 and 2027 (39.5 MW × USD 6.70 million per MW), below the model’s USD 388.64 million of facility spend in those two years.

For the same method in a neighbouring market, see the Bangladesh Data Center Market, and for the regional total see the Asia Pacific Data Center Market.