Cyberport 5 Is the Next Phase of Hong Kong Tech Infrastructure

I visited the construction site for Cyberport 5 last month and the sheer scale of the expansion is something every founder in Hong Kong needs to pay attention to. We often talk about the Silicon Valley of the East as a vague marketing concept. But when you look at the HK$3.7 billion or roughly US$472 million investment going into this new landmark, you realize that the infrastructure for our next decade of growth is being physically built right now.

As a founder, I have seen Cyberport evolve from a quiet cluster of buildings in Pok Fu Lam into a high-density ecosystem. But the existing four phases are reaching capacity. Cyberport 5 is not just about more office space. It is a fundamental upgrade to how we compute and how we build. It is also about how we interact with the physical environment in Hong Kong.

The expansion project involves the construction of a new 10-storey office building at a waterfront site of approximately 1.6 hectares. This is not a small addition. This project adds 40 percent to the current gross floor area of Cyberport. That brings in approximately 66,000 square metres of new space.

When I look at the plans, what excites me most is the Tier-III+ grade sustainable data center that will be housed within the building. For those of us running heavy AI workloads or blockchain nodes, having low-latency and high-reliability compute housed right on-site is a massive advantage. We are talking about infrastructure that can actually handle the power density requirements of 2026-era hardware.

Cyberport 5 is being built with a smart city first mentality. I saw some of the kinetic energy arrays being installed outside the building. They are using Pavegen technology. This involves two 10.85 square metre arrays that transform footsteps into clean energy. This power is stored in batteries and used to enable real-time data insights via the Siemens Insights Hub.

It sounds small but it is a proof of concept for the rest of Hong Kong. As founders, we should be looking at how we can integrate our software with this kind of hardware. The building itself becomes a giant IoT sensor.

The expansion includes a major enhancement of the waterfront park. We are getting improved green landscaping and smart facilities. For those of us who spend 14 hours a day in front of a screen, having a functional and pet-friendly waterfront promenade that is actually integrated with the tech campus is a huge boost for mental health and talent retention.

I built my first AI pipeline in a shared office space with terrible cooling. We had to throttle our GPUs because the building electrical grid simply could not handle the draw. Cyberport 5 is designed to solve that. With the AI Supercomputing Centre offering 3,000 PFLOPS nearby and the new Tier-III+ facilities in Phase 5, Hong Kong is positioning itself as the sovereign compute hub of Asia.

If you are a tech founder, you need to understand that infrastructure is your moat. If your competitors are relying on throttled public cloud instances in other jurisdictions, and you have direct access to 3,000 PFLOPS of compute power backed by a state-of-the-art facility like Cyberport 5, you win on speed and cost.

When I first started my company, the options for high-compute infrastructure in Hong Kong were limited. Most people just went with AWS or Google Cloud. But as we move toward 2026, the game has changed. Sovereignty matters. Data residency matters. And most importantly, the physical proximity to your compute nodes matters for the type of real-time agentic workflows we are building today.

Cyberport 5 is the physical manifestation of this shift. It is a campus designed for the AI era. Most offices in Central or Tsim Sha Tsui are built for finance or law firms. They have beautiful views but lack the redundant power and specialized cooling that a modern AI startup requires. Phase 5 changes that math for every founder in the city.

Walking along the waterfront, you can see the progress of the 10-storey structure. The architecture is designed to harmonize with nature while providing a high-tech environment. The use of glass and open spaces reflects the transparency and collaboration we need in the startup ecosystem.

The building is situated on a 1.6-hectare site. This provides ample room for more than just offices. There will be retail elements and community spaces. This is critical because a tech hub is not just where we work. It is where we meet our next co-founder or pitch our next investor.

The Pavegen installation is just the tip of the iceberg. The entire Cyberport 5 building will be equipped with IoT sensors to monitor everything from occupancy to air quality and energy consumption. This data will be available to startups within the ecosystem to build and test their own smart city applications.

Imagine having a living lab where you can deploy your software and see it interact with thousands of people in real-time. This is the advantage of being in a government-backed facility like Cyberport. You get access to the sandbox that private landlords simply cannot provide.

Cyberport 5 also serves as a critical node in the Greater Bay Area Tech Corridor. With the expansion, Cyberport can host more international companies looking to enter the mainland China market and more mainland companies looking to go global.

As a founder based here, this means my neighbor might be a unicorn from Shenzhen or a deep-tech startup from Singapore. This density of talent is what creates a true innovation hub. Phase 5 is the bridge that makes this possible by providing the physical space for these companies to land.

Some skeptics might ask if we really need another office building in the era of remote work. My answer is a resounding yes. High-tech work is not just about typing on a laptop. It is about accessing the supercomputing resources and the low-latency networking that you cannot get at home.

The HK$3.7 billion investment from the government is a strategic move to ensure Hong Kong remains competitive. While other cities are struggling to repurpose old office space, Hong Kong is building purpose-built tech infrastructure from the ground up. This is a long-term play that will pay dividends for decades.

When my startup grew from 5 people to 50, we struggled to find a space that could scale with us. We ended up moving three times in two years. With the 40 percent increase in floor area at Cyberport, the ecosystem can finally support the graduation of its startups.

In the past, many successful companies had to leave Cyberport because there was no room for them to expand. Phase 5 solves this graduation problem. You can start in the Smart-Space coworking area, move to a private office in Phase 3, and eventually take an entire floor in Phase 5 as you scale toward an IPO.

If you are a founder looking to move into the new expansion, you need to start planning now. The demand will be high. The selection process for Cyberport tenants is rigorous, focusing on ICT innovation and business viability.

1. Focus on AI and Data. The infrastructure is built for this. If your startup is leveraging the 3,000 PFLOPS of compute, you will have a much stronger case.
2. Emphasize Sustainability. Given the smart city features like Pavegen, showing how your company contributes to a greener tech ecosystem will align with the mission of Cyberport 5.
3. Plan for Scale. Do not just ask for the space you need today. Show the committee how you will grow to fill a larger footprint in the next three years.

By the time the first tenants move into Cyberport 5 in late 2025 or early 2026, the tech landscape will look very different. I predict we will see a surge in sovereign AI companies. These are companies that build their own models on local infrastructure rather than relying on US-based APIs.

The 66,000 square metres of new space will become a hive of activity for autonomous agents and robotic systems. With the park enhancement and the smart facilities, I expect Cyberport to become a showcase for how technology can improve urban living.

The expansion is also expected to create thousands of jobs, both during the construction phase and once the building is operational. This is a significant boost for the Southern District and for the Hong Kong economy at large. For founders, this means a larger local pool of engineers and product managers who are already familiar with the Cyberport environment.

As a founder who has benefited from the Cyberport community, I feel a responsibility to help build the next generation of startups here. I will be hosting more meetups and mentorship sessions once the new community spaces in Phase 5 are open.

The tech scene in Hong Kong has had its ups and downs. But standing on the waterfront and looking at the rising frame of Cyberport 5, I have never been more optimistic. We are building the future with concrete, glass, and thousands of GPUs.

Cyberport 5 is the most significant addition to the Hong Kong tech infrastructure in over a decade. It addresses the critical needs of modern startups. These needs include high-density power, advanced cooling for AI, and the physical space to scale.

If you are building something in the AI or smart city space, you cannot afford to ignore this expansion. The HK$3.7 billion investment is a clear signal that Hong Kong is open for innovation. I will see you on the waterfront in 2026.

One cannot discuss Cyberport 5 without looking at the massive 3,000 PFLOPS AI Supercomputing Centre that serves as its digital twin. While Phase 5 provides the physical workspace, the Supercomputing Centre provides the brainpower. I have talked to several teams who are already beta testing the compute nodes, and the results are incredible.

For a long time, Hong Kong founders had to look to the mainland or the US for high-performance computing (HPC). This created latency issues and data sovereignty hurdles. With the new centre, we are looking at a facility that is purpose-built for the most demanding LLM training and complex simulations. This is a game-changer for those of us working on agentic workflows and real-time AI reasoning.

In the current geopolitical climate, having sovereign compute power is not just a luxury. It is a necessity. Cyberport 5 and the AI Supercomputing Centre ensure that Hong Kong startups have access to the resources they need regardless of external changes in the global tech landscape.

As a founder, this gives me peace of mind. I know that my data is processed locally within a Tier-III+ environment. I know that the infrastructure is backed by the Hong Kong government. This stability is worth its weight in gold when you are trying to raise a Series A or Series B round.

I want to talk more about the Pavegen installation because I think it is often misunderstood as just a gimmick. It is actually a sophisticated data collection tool. Each footstep on the 10.85 square metre arrays generates about 3 joules of energy. While that might not sound like much, in a high-traffic area like the Cyberport waterfront, it adds up quickly.

But more importantly, each step is a data point. By using the Siemens Insights Hub, the management of Cyberport can track foot traffic patterns in real-time. This information can be used to optimize building services, from lighting to air conditioning. For smart city startups, this is a goldmine of data for training urban mobility models.

The integration with Siemens is a masterclass in how to build a smart building. The Insights Hub acts as the nervous system of Cyberport 5. It takes disparate data streams from the Pavegen tiles, the IoT sensors in the elevator shafts, and the environmental monitors on the roof. It then synthesizes them into actionable insights.

As founders, we should be thinking about how our own products can plug into these ecosystems. If you are building a property-tech or energy-tech company, the Insights Hub is the perfect API to build against. Cyberport is essentially providing us with a world-class testbed for our innovations.

Hong Kong has always been a gateway, but with the Greater Bay Area initiatives, that gateway is becoming a two-way superhighway. Cyberport 5 is strategically positioned to be the key entry and exit point for this corridor.

The expansion increases the capacity to host more than just startups. It is designed to accommodate the innovation hubs of large corporations. This is where the magic happens. When you put a 10-person AI startup on the same floor as a research team from a Fortune 500 company, you get a level of cross-pollination that is hard to replicate.

I have seen an increasing number of founders from Shenzhen and Guangzhou visiting the site. They are attracted by the international environment and the legal framework of Hong Kong. Phase 5 gives them a high-spec landing zone where they can set up their international headquarters while remaining close to their manufacturing bases in the mainland.

For Hong Kong founders, this mean easier access to the mainland market. The connections you make in the halls of Cyberport 5 can lead to partnerships across the border that would otherwise take months of travel and networking to secure.

Let's talk about the human side of the expansion. Tech founders are notorious for working long hours, but we are also increasingly aware of the need for work-life balance to maintain focus. The enhancement of the waterfront park is a central part of the Phase 5 project.

The park is being redesigned with smart seating, improved lighting, and pet-friendly areas. This is not just about making the place look nice. It is about creating a habitat where people want to spend time. I have had some of my best brainstorms while walking my dog along the Pok Fu Lam waterfront.

By integrating the park with the office space through smart walkways and digital signage, Cyberport is creating a unified campus experience. It blurs the line between the office and the outdoors, which is a key trend in the design of modern tech headquarters like the ones you see in California or Singapore.

One of the challenges for Cyberport has always been its location. It is beautiful but a bit tucked away. The expansion project includes plans to improve accessibility. Whether it is through improved shuttle services or the potential for future rail links, the government is committed to making this hub more accessible to the rest of the city.

For my team, this is a major factor. As we scale, we need to draw talent from all over Hong Kong. The improvements planned alongside Phase 5 make it easier for our employees to commute from the New Territories or Kowloon. It makes the southern district feel less like a remote campus and more like an integrated part of the urban fabric.

If I could go back five years and tell myself that there would be a 3,000 PFLOPS supercomputer and a 66,000 square metre smart building sitting on the waterfront of Hong Kong, I would have doubled down on the city even harder.

Cyberport 5 is not just a building. It is a statement of intent. It says that Hong Kong is not just a financial center, but a serious player in the global technology race. We have the capital, we have the talent, and now we finally have the infrastructure to match.

I encourage every founder reading this to take a trip out to Pok Fu Lam. Look at the cranes. Look at the new structure rising from the ground. Think about how your company can leverage the 40 percent increase in space and the Tier-III+ data infrastructure. The future is being built right now, and the doors will be open before you know it.

I will see you at the opening ceremony in 2026. Let's build something world-changing.