THE government on Tuesday launched the final draft of the Philippines AI+ Infrastructure Masterplan 2026–2033, a $34.4-billion road map that seeks to position the country as a regional hub for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Introduced earlier this year, the completed plan lays out the Marcos administration full strategy for AI infrastructure development through 2033.
Gemma Baysic, officer in charge of the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s National ICT Planning, Policy and Standards Bureau, said the Philippines aimed to be more than a consumer of AI technology.
“[The Philippines aims] to build, host, power and support the AI ecosystem of the future,” she said.
Under the master plan, the country’s AI data center capacity is set to expand 30-fold, from a baseline of 50 megawatts (MW) to 1.5 gigawatts by 2033, with an initial deployment of roughly 400 MW to be completed by 2030 under the plan’s first phase.
Energy Undersecretary Maria Francesca Del Rosario said the country was expected to power around 152,000 graphics processing units for its planned AI industry, using the figure as a proxy for estimating computing capacity and power demand.
She said the DOE would be responsible for producing this additional power without pulling electricity away from Filipino households.
Immediate power needs will be met using natural gas plants, with a target of sourcing 40 percent of total power for AI infrastructure from renewable sources such as solar and geothermal by 2033.
The Energy department will also explore nuclear power as a long-term option under Republic Act 12305, or the Philippine National Nuclear Energy Safety Act.
Baysic said the Philippines already had a strong AI policy foundation, placing it second among Asean countries in an AI benchmark, on par with Singapore and just behind Thailand.
She explained that the development of AI infrastructure would be paired with six mutually supporting pillars: connectivity infrastructure; AI compute and data centers; sustainable energy and water sourcing; AI workforce development; policy and regulation; and demand creation and adoption.
She identified four corridors where the country’s AI industry would be built: the Clark-Bataan corridor as the primary anchor, the Batangas-Aurora corridor as a strategic gateway, Subic and Calabarzon as supporting hubs, and Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Cagayan de Oro as future regional nodes.
Of the $34.4-billion investment required to implement the master plan, $13.5 billion, or 39 percent, is expected to come from public sources while $21 billion, or 61 percent, is expected from private investors.
By 2033, the master plan projects the initiative will generate more than 500,000 AI-related jobs and an additional 175,000 jobs from AI infrastructure projects, while raising gross domestic product by 10 to 12 percent through AI-driven productivity gains and new digital services.
To support this growth, the master plan includes reskilling programs targeting 1.3 million members of the country’s information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) workforce alongside the establishment of a fully operational national AI governance and trusted data framework by the end of the plan period.
The master plan cited the country’s strategic geographic location, a backbone of 21 submarine cables, over 95 percent mobile coverage and its 1.3-million-strong IT-BPM workforce as key advantages.
It noted that the Philippines currently only had one AI-oriented data center facility, with an installed capacity of around 50 MW, underscoring the scale of expansion needed to meet projected demand
