Southeast Asia digital sales seen rising 17% in 2026, report says

what happened

Reuters reports that digital sales volume in Southeast Asia is expected to climb 17% to $368 billion in 2026. The forecast appears in the annual e-Conomy SEA 2026 report, produced by Google, consulting firm Bain & Company and state investor Temasek.

The report expects the gross value of goods and services sold through digital platforms to keep growing 13% a year, reaching $1.14 trillion by 2035. Funding for the region's digital economy reached $21 billion in the first half of 2026, above the $11 billion raised in all of 2025. Two large data centre deals drove much of that inflow: an $11 billion transaction involving STT GDC and a $5 billion one involving DayOne. Meanwhile, the number of private funding deals fell 28.4% to 421 in 2025.

Data centre capacity rose to 5.8 gigawatts by mid-2026 from 4 gigawatts at the end of 2025. Southeast Asia's AI use still lags, at 5 million tokens per capita versus 60 million in the US and 14 million in Europe. IPO proceeds over the 12 months to June 30, 2026 totaled $8.5 billion, more than double the prior period's $3.6 billion, driven by listings in Singapore and Malaysia.

why it matters

For markets, the key signal is capital flowing into data centre infrastructure and a pickup in listings in Singapore and Malaysia. The report is descriptive and gives no specific levels for individual stocks or currencies, but it shows where regional money is heading.

tags

instruments