It seems as if everyone is talking about data centres, yet few investors can explain how they operate or generate returns. Attached is the first of a two-part investment primer series on the data centre sector. Data centres have transitioned from a niche property sub-sector to a critical layer of the global digital economy. However, most investment frameworks currently applied to these assets were designed for conventional real estate. That structural mismatch routinely produces flawed conclusions and masks mispriced risk. Primer 1 provides the foundation required to evaluate the sector. The core premise is straightforward: Data centres behave as utility-linked digital infrastructure. Data centre value is not derived from physical floor space, but from secured power access, policy constraints, and network density. Valuing these assets on traditional capitalisation rates and basic occupancy metrics is an easy way to reach spurious investment conclusions. Inside the attached report, we address the conventional assumptions and delve into the drivers of long-term value: The Power Constraint: Why the ability to deliver megawatts, rather than customer demand, is now the ultimate arbiter of value and pricing power. The Valuation Trap: How traditional real estate metrics obscure massive, mandatory capital expenditure cycles and engineered obsolescence. Disintermediation Risk: The structural threat facing independent REITs as hyperscalers and sovereign wealth funds bypass landlords to build closed-loop infrastructure ecosystems. The sector requires unprecedented capital allocation to meet the ongoing wave of artificial intelligence and cloud demand. However, the dispersion in investment outcomes between secured, compliant capacity and isolated, unpowered shells will be severe. Primer 2 will follow shortly to apply this framework directly to the listed investment universe, focusing specifically on the SGX data centre market. We would like to acknowledge the support of SGX and Smartkarma in producing the research.