Recently, our capital market has been revitalised by a new trend. It\nis no longer driven by commodity and consumer product issuers, but by\ncompanies building data centres. This is because these issuers are\nconsidered proxies for artificial intelligence (AI) companies listed on\nthe Indonesia Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
As we know, the global stock market has been obsessed with AI for\nseveral years. After lagging behind for a long time, investments related\nto AI are finally entering Indonesia in the form of data centre\nconstruction. With the market value of data centres projected to soar\nfrom US$6.09 billion to over US$8.4 billion by the 2030s, massive\ncapital is flowing heavily into regions ranging from Cikarang to\nBatam.<\/p>\n
Tech giants are flocking to the country, enticed by more efficient\nconstruction costs compared to Singapore. Additionally, Indonesia\u2019s\ngeopolitical position serves as a primary junction for new undersea\ncables that avoid tensions in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n
However, behind the euphoria of these trillion-rupiah investments,\nthere lies an ecological and structural time bomb. AI data centres are\nnot an invisible \u201ccloud\u201d; they are energy-hungry thermodynamic\ninfrastructure. Modern AI server racks draw tens of kilowatts of\nelectricity and demand liquid cooling technology, as air circulation is\nno longer sufficient to dissipate the heat.<\/p>\n
In our tropical climate, cooling such facilities risks triggering\nlocal clean water crises if operators are not compelled to adopt\nclosed-loop circulation technology with strict Water Usage Effectiveness\n(WUE) monitoring.<\/p>\n
The grandeur of this foreign-owned infrastructure also stands in\nparadox with domestic governance realities. A deficit of millions of AI\ntechnical talents leaves us vulnerable to becoming merely manual\nlabourers and end consumers. The tragedy of the National Data Centre\n(PDNS) hack and the lack of data backup procedures serve as naked proof\nof how primitive our institutional cybersecurity fortresses remain.<\/p>\n
The government must not be lulled into complacency by investment\nfigures alone. Allowing capital to enter without enforcing technology\ntransfer, cybersecurity audits, and strict limits on water and\nelectricity exploitation will result in us being mere \u201clandlords\u201d\nleasing out space.<\/p>\n
True digital sovereignty is the ability to control technology for the\nwelfare of the people, rather than simply hosting the heat waste and\ncarbon footprint of foreign artificial intelligence.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ai-in-indonesia-business-insight-1789177836", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }