DHL Supply Chain is adding 130,000 sqm of built-to-suit warehouse capacity in Malaysia and Thailand to assemble, cable, test and install server racks for hyperscalers.
The sites turn AI-infrastructure logistics into a standalone 3PL line, with its own handling rules.
By the numbers: The expansion lifts DHL’s regional data-center footprint beyond 160,000 sqm, adding to more than 30,000-plus sqm already operating across the region, with the new sites slated to go live over the next two years.
DHL frames the buildout against roughly $800 billion in regional data-center investment expected by 2030, with Asia Pacific emerging as the next major growth market.
How it works: The pitch is no longer move-and-store. Work that traditionally took place at the data-center construction site now happens in the warehouse first. DHL assembles the rack frames, mounts and cables the servers, runs functional testing and packs the units securely, then handles white-glove install on site, from route surveys and floor protection through rack installation and completion reporting.
The move follows DHL’s March expansion of 10 North America sites and 7 million-plus sq ft, making this part of a broader global push.
Across the sector: Rivals are chasing the same hyperscaler spend while placing different bets on where logistics value accrues.
Kuehne+Nagel launched a server and data-centre logistics solution in 2024 built around its air network and last-mile white glove, a network-led approach against DHL’s built-to-suit warehouse bet. Distribution Strategy Group, analyzing DHL’s March expansion, argued that “value is migrating from product margins to service integration” and that product-only distributors “risk displacement by consolidated logistics providers.”
The operator stake: That consolidation read reflects a gap in buyer behavior, per Distribution Strategy Group: about 85% of data-center customers want a single end-to-end logistics partner, but only 43% have one.
The freight demand underneath the trend is real and growing. Cisco’s hyperscaler AI-infrastructure orders ran about $1.3 billion, which its SEC filing described as a “significant acceleration in growth”, while Dell entered its current fiscal year with a record $43 billion AI-server backlog, per its earnings release.
Every dollar of that backlog has to ship, rack and install, and the contract-logistics players are competing to own that work.
