SUNeVision: how Hong Kong internet real estate became AI-era data-centre infrastructure

SUNeVision was born at the height of Hong Kong’s first internet boom, but its long-term value came from something much less fashionable than websites: buildings, power and fibre.

Backed by Sun Hung Kai Properties, the company was established in 2000 as a technology and infrastructure business. Its data-centre arm, iAdvantage, quickly became the centre of the story.

By 2026, SUNeVision operated one of Hong Kong’s largest carrier- and cloud-neutral data-centre platforms, with a network of facilities built around MEGA-i and newer hyperscale sites. Artificial-intelligence demand was pushing the company into another expansion cycle, this time around higher power density and liquid-cooling-ready infrastructure.

Hong Kong’s internet boom created the opening

SUNeVision emerged in 2000 when Hong Kong was becoming an important regional internet and telecommunications hub. International carriers, banks and technology companies needed secure places to house servers close to dense fibre routes and subsea-cable connections.

Sun Hung Kai Properties supplied something a young internet-infrastructure company badly needed: access to real estate and development expertise in one of the world’s most expensive property markets.

The company listed in Hong Kong that same year and developed data-centre capacity through iAdvantage. Unlike a software startup, SUNeVision had to commit capital to physical infrastructure before the revenue arrived.

That model required patience. Data centres can operate for decades, but every expansion depends on land, power, cooling, network connectivity and long-term customer commitments.

MEGA-i became the centre of Hong Kong connectivity

The most important early asset was MEGA-i in Chai Wan. The purpose-built high-rise data centre was completed in 2000 and became an unusually dense meeting point for networks, cloud providers and enterprise customers.

Its value grew because connectivity attracts more connectivity. Carriers want to be where customers already exchange traffic, while customers prefer facilities that give them access to many carriers and cloud platforms without having to build separate links across the city.

By 2026, SUNeVision said MEGA-i hosted around 15,000 cross-connects and points of presence for nine submarine cables. The facility also connected customers to major cloud gateways and internet exchanges.

That network density became a competitive asset that newer buildings could not reproduce simply by offering more floor space.

The business expanded from one hub into a campus

As cloud computing and digital services increased demand, SUNeVision added more data centres around Hong Kong. Facilities such as MEGA Two and MEGA Plus widened the amount of colocation capacity while remaining connected to the ecosystem around MEGA-i.

The company increasingly marketed the portfolio as the MEGA Campus. Dedicated fibre links allowed customers in newer facilities to reach the dense network community already established at MEGA-i.

This approach mattered because a data centre’s usefulness is not determined only by its size. A large building with limited network choice can be less valuable than a smaller facility connected to many carriers, clouds and exchanges.

SUNeVision therefore built capacity while trying to preserve the interconnection advantage that had developed around its original site.

MEGA Gateway extended the connectivity model

MEGA Gateway in Tsuen Wan opened as a newer extension of the network. The facility offers about 200,000 square feet of gross floor area and 20MW of power capacity.

Its role is not simply to add racks. MEGA Gateway is designed to connect directly into the wider MEGA Campus so customers can reach cloud gateways and service providers available through MEGA-i.

By the 2025 financial year, more than 90% of deployed capacity at MEGA Gateway had been taken up, with cloud, telecom and banking customers among the users.

The result reinforced SUNeVision’s view that premium connectivity can justify investment even in a property market where data-centre development is expensive.

MEGA IDC changed the scale again

The next phase of expansion is much larger. MEGA IDC in Tseung Kwan O is being developed as a hyperscale facility for customers that need large amounts of space and power.

When fully developed, SUNeVision says MEGA IDC will offer roughly 1.2 million square feet of gross floor area and more than 180MW of IT load. That makes the project far larger than the traditional colocation facilities that defined the group’s earlier growth.

Hyperscale customers often want entire halls or large blocks of capacity rather than a few racks. They may also require much higher power density as AI and accelerated computing push more electricity through each cabinet.

That has forced data-centre design to evolve from simply housing servers toward supporting highly concentrated computing infrastructure.

AI demand turned power into the new scarce resource

Artificial intelligence has increased demand for high-density data centres because training and inference systems use large clusters of GPUs connected by fast networks.

Those clusters consume much more electricity than conventional enterprise servers and can require liquid cooling. The constraint is therefore no longer only floor space. Operators need enough utility power, backup capacity, cooling and network connectivity to support the equipment safely.

SUNeVision has positioned MEGA IDC around that shift. The company has accelerated later phases of the project and says the next development will include high-density, liquid-cooling-ready infrastructure.

This is a capital-intensive opportunity. AI demand can support higher utilisation, but the company still has to build expensive capacity years before the full revenue stream is visible.

A major 2026 commitment pushed MEGA IDC toward full utilisation

During 2026, SUNeVision disclosed a large customer commitment for MEGA IDC Phase One. Once the customer is fully installed, committed occupancy is expected to rise from about 30% to roughly 70%.

The company also said discussions were advanced for the remaining floors. That gave management more confidence to accelerate the next phases of the project rather than waiting for the first building to mature completely.

Phases Two and Three are being developed as one integrated project with around 700,000 square feet of additional high-density capacity targeted for 2028.

The expansion would take SUNeVision’s total data-centre footprint to almost three million square feet and available power capacity to about 280MW.

FY2026 showed stronger operating leverage

For the financial year ended 30 June 2026, SUNeVision reported total revenue of HK$3.117 billion, up 6% from the previous year.

Recurring revenue from data-centre and IT facilities increased 8% to HK$2.856 billion. EBITDA rose 8% to HK$2.3 billion, while the EBITDA margin increased from 72% to 74%.

Profit attributable to shareholders rose 17% to HK$1.146 billion. Lower finance costs helped, but the results also reflected higher utilisation across the data-centre portfolio.

These numbers illustrate an important feature of the business model. Once a data centre has been built and filled, additional recurring revenue can carry attractive margins because much of the physical infrastructure is already in place.

Connectivity remains as important as capacity

SUNeVision’s expansion does not mean the company is becoming only a hyperscale landlord. The interconnection ecosystem around MEGA-i remains a major part of the platform.

Cloud providers, financial institutions, telecom carriers and internet companies often need direct private connections to one another. Cross-connects can improve performance and reduce dependence on public internet routes.

The more networks that gather in the same ecosystem, the more useful the location can become. This network effect is difficult for a competitor to reproduce with a new building alone.

SUNeVision’s strategy therefore combines two forms of scarcity: physical power capacity and dense connectivity.

Hong Kong’s geography shaped the company

SUNeVision’s development is closely tied to Hong Kong itself. The city sits on major regional fibre routes, hosts important financial institutions and acts as a gateway between mainland China and international markets.

At the same time, land is expensive and large industrial sites are limited. That makes data-centre expansion more difficult than in markets where operators can buy vast suburban campuses cheaply.

SUNeVision has responded by combining dense urban connectivity hubs with larger facilities in locations better suited to hyperscale expansion.

The resulting portfolio reflects the constraints of its home market rather than a generic global data-centre blueprint.

SUNeVision turned internet real estate into digital infrastructure

The company formed during the dot-com era could easily have become another forgotten technology holding company. Instead, it concentrated on a physical layer the internet would always need.

MEGA-i became a dense connectivity hub. Newer facilities widened capacity without disconnecting customers from that ecosystem. MEGA IDC then pushed SUNeVision into hyperscale and AI-ready infrastructure.

By 2026, the most important resource in the business was no longer simply rack space. It was the combination of megawatts, fibre routes and network relationships needed to support increasingly dense computing.

SUNeVision’s history shows how a property-backed internet venture became critical infrastructure by building around the parts of the digital economy that still require very physical assets.