Finance Malaysia Blogspot: The Rise of Data Centres in Malaysia and 4 Key Beneficiaries

Data Centre (DC) had recently became the new gold of Malaysia. Mari-mari come 💁💁💁. Our government is welcoming global technology giants to come onboard to setup their DCs here with priority lanes.

Hence, Malaysia is emerging as the fastest-growing player in the data centre scene within the ASEAN region, driven by several strategic advantages, such as:

superior infrastructure
strategic location (close proximity to Singapore)
favourable government policies

The Malaysian government has been supportive of the data centre industry, with Malaysia Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) and Malaysia Digital Economic Corporation (MDEC) establishing a Digital Investment Office as a one-stop centre to ensure faster processes and approvals.

Started since 2019 👀

In fact, Malaysia has seen a flurry of activity in the data centre space since 2019. Good connectivity, reliable power supply and political stability were key attractions, as demand for data centre capacity in the region expanded.

Source: FMT

The Singapore government’s decision to place a moratorium on power and land for data centres in 2019 provided an added shot in the arm for demand for data centre capacity in Malaysia, especially in the state of Johor, which is ranked as the 7th largest data centre market in Asia by Cushman & Wakefield as of 1Q24.

Key Beneficiaries:

Construction companies, particularly, Suncon, Gamuda and YTL Corp. Recap: YTL Power, which owns a 500MW green data centre park in Johor that will come onstream in 2024 and has partnered Nvidia to provide AI-focused computing infrastructure.
Key providers of connectivity in Malaysia 💫💫💫, such as Telekom Malaysia (TM) and Time dotCom (TIMECOM), will benefit from increased connectivity requirements from the boom in data centre capacity.
Property developers with landbanks are stand to benefited as well. Example, Sime Property’s Elmina development, which is the site of Google’s first data centre in Malaysia.

Not to forget 👉 Sunway Bhd, AME REIT, SP Setia, Eco World Development Group, UEM Sunrise, Tropicana Corp and Mah Sing Group.
Energy power house - Tenaga Nasional (TNB), of course lol. Why? TNB supports the entire energy industry value chain, encompassing generation, grid, distribution network, and retail divisions.

To facilitate growth, TNB has introduced measures to expedite the connection of DCs. The Green Lane Pathway, specifically customised for DCs, now enables connectivity to be delivered within 12 months. Additionally, TNB operates multiple subsidiaries that provide a full suite of services to support data centre development.