South-East Asia emerges as global data centre hot spot as AI usage rises; Malaysia and Singapore among leaders in marketSINGAPORE : The world’s largest technology firms are flocking to South-East Asia to build data centres at a time when demand for infrastructure and computing power to enable artificial intelligence is rapidly rising.
Data centres are large facilities built to accommodate servers, data storage systems and networking equipment that support better internet services and telecommunications. Malaysia seized the bulk of new data centre investments entering the region during that period, and now expects facilities with around one gigawatt of power capacity to come online over the next two years.Another 3GW has also been announced and, if approved, will be gradually rolled out in the next three to five years, RHB Bank said.Among those channelling capital into Malaysia are tech titans like Microsoft, which said in May that it will invest US$2.
By 2028, RHB expects Malaysia to account for over half the data centre processing power across the top five South-east Asian markets, with data centres in Johor making up the bulk of inventories at over 2.3GW. Speaking at a conference in May, then Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Janil Puthucheary said data centres are collectively Singapore’s biggest indirect carbon emitter.
“The industry does not have a clear picture of what’s next after the additional capacity was announced in May, or when we can bid or how. We haven’t seen this information coming, and that has created uncertainty,” he said.Mr Dedi said that while Singapore is still the preferred destination for hosting mission-critical computing applications, Johor, which still struggles with issues like talent and water shortages, is improving quickly.