Johns' forests, Malaysia State across Johor Strait from Singapore, were first refined in the 1840s and the clans of Chinese from Singapore to find more space to grow black pepper. In the next century, under British rule, those pepper fields provided large ways of rubber palm trees and oil. On many of those sites today, Johor is promoting a new type of money produce: data centers intended to nourish the world's appetite of artificial intelligence.
Johor's data center, as a change of pepper growing, is partly a shortage of shortages in Singapore. A small city province is South Asia's digital hub. But it incorporates water and power, and in 2019 it set a moratorium on data construction centers because the hulking equipment was water and used 7% of Singapore's electricity. Investors and operators of data centers directed to neighboring Malaysia, where land is cheaper, energy is plentiful, and the government is interested in skipping the national digital economy.
But the rise of Johor as the power of the data center is also driven by the universal conflict in computational forces. Singapore saved its data center ban in January 2022, but the release of Chatgpt later that year resulted in an explosion on international needs of the AI ​​infrastructure – -led to new investments in Malaysia. In 2023, Malaysia earned more than $ 10 billion in investment at data centers, then increased three times that in 2024, making the country the world's hottest destination for data center investment in both years, according to the advice of Property Knight Frank.
Johor is the center of the construction. For the government, and for Malaysia, the big question is whether these floods of capital and expertise will carry their broader economy to the new era of high-level growth-or if other challenges, such as changes to international demand and restrictions on local resources, will turn their centers from money cows to debt.
Johor hosts more than 40 data centers that are operating or built, according to Baxtel's advisory company, from almost a dozen in 2022. Many more are in the planning stages. The capacity of the data center, which was tested for how much the equipment could provide, increased to more than 1,500 megawatts last year, from 10 megawatts three years earlier, according to the DC byte Statistical Advisory Forum.
If the expansion continues at its current resort speed, Johor could take northern Virginia as the main road to the global data center within the next five years.
“Johor increases the capacity of the data center at a rapid and rate that I haven't seen anywhere else in the world,” says Langu Salgame, CEO of Princeton Digital Group, Singapore Data Center operator. Princeton Digital, whose posters included Personal Heads of Warburg Pincus, last year launched the first phase of $ 1.5 billion, a 150-megawatts data university in the largest technological field 40 miles from the Singapore-Johor border crossing-and plans to add a second college, 200-Migawatt in a few miles business.
A parade of companies interacting with multi -billion dollar investment advertisements in Johor also includes world technology leaders such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, alphabet, and Oracle, as well as data center operators such as California's Equinix, Japan's NTT data, and Chinese GDS Holdings.
“Three years ago,” says Salgame, “if you asked the CEO of World Technology Heads about Johor, they never heard about it, less than being able to find it on the map. Now, everyone is here.”
It is no coincidence that the advent of major language models (LLMs) in America and China has led to the data center bonanza in Malaysia away. In the pre -chatgpt era, with many services handled by data centers, there was a great benefit to working from devices around users. For work as gaming, stock business, fraud detection, social media, or internet videos, all millisecond counts. Companies that provide such services pay a major penalty for “Latency” – Timely fraud takes data travel between the user device and the data center and the back.
By contrast, LLMS training is not interactive. Instead of applying for and waiting for real -time response, it includes doing long, going on in the set databases. The process can run for days or weeks without requiring immediate-and-out communication. While latency is not a matter of concern, AI companies can prioritize efficiency – high strength and power and land – to get data centers thousands of miles from where models are designed or intended to be used. That means Malaysian AI data centers can compete not only with those of Singapore or other neighbors of South Asia, but also with similar equipment in the world.
Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has Welcomed the data center And it focuses on strategic plans, as well as tax breaks and approval procedures, to position the nation as the world's AI hub. An important part of that push is the green path, the 2023 program launched by the Nasalion Nasional Berhad, the Malaysian primary electricity use, which aims to reduce the time required to connect data stations to the power grid to 12 months, from over the last three years.
There is a sign that the data center is causing Malaysian resources – because the same equipment was temporarily banned in Singapore. Malaysia, like Singapore, is one of the most compressed countries in the world. The Malaysian Water Service Commission has warned that the country may face severe water shortages over the next five years due to climate change and aging infrastructure -without complying with the requirements from data centers.
Power, too, is an issue. A medium -sized data center can be capable of 40 to 50 megawatts, enough to use as much electricity in the year as about 125,000 houses, depending on the use. The largest Hypercale AI processing centers may require 500 megawatts each time, consuming more electricity every year than about 250,000 households in the largest city of Johor, Johor Bahru.
Malaysia's position on the equator means that its data centers also require more colder than equipment in northern countries with cold weather.
At a recent investor meeting, Johns' Mayor Bahru Mohd Noorazam Osman acknowledged concerns about water shortages and power. “People are very frustrated with data centers these days,” he said. “The issue in Johor is that we do not have enough water and power. I believe that when promoting investment is important, it should not come at the expense of the domestic and domestic needs of the people.”
The Malaysian government says it expects data centers operating in the country to pay water and power payments; Early symptoms show technology companies and operators are ready to do so. Last year's authorities rejected the use of a few data center projects for failing to comply with efficiency and sustainability standards.
The rapid increase in power requirements from data centers can prove support if you accelerate Malaysian changes to renewable energy. In 2020, only about 4% of Malaysia's power came from alternative sources. The percentage is expected to increase more than 30% this year, according to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, and the government has vowed to increase the renewable energy component in the total generation capacity to 70% by 2050.
In Johor, leaders think great. The first college of Princeton Digital Statistics Center is located in Sedenak Tech Park (action), a 700 -acre digital hub owned by JCORP's property, a government -owned conference, on a site that was formerly part of the palm oil farm. In addition to the Princeton hub, the action includes a 300-divided Hyperscale Data University is built by the Yondr group of Amsterdam, and third, under development with Japan's Mitsui & Coi, which will include the solar field of the site.
The stage, already a large Malaysian data center, is almost overwhelming. JCORP promotes phase 2, stage 2, which will add another 640 acres to the stadium, and has 7,000 acres of land that will include R&D equipment, residential areas, and culture and rec. JCORP has also included Zaha Hadid architects to create a 500 -acre invention center called Discovery City which will integrate digital technologies with sustainable life.
The prevalence of projects like this is to change Johor, the southern state of Malaysia. Johor and Singapore are linked to two cross -landing, forestry and Tuas, which are among the most cross -boundary and most boundless ways in the world. Singapore's side is full of people and is carefully organized, with tariffs and customs. Johor's side is lovely and chaotic, with more motorcycles, small cars, and buses.
“Johor increases the capacity of the data center at a speed and rate that I haven't seen anywhere else.”
Rangu Salgame, CEO of Princeton Digital Group
In January, Johor signed an “Special Economic Area” agreement with Singapore to Promoting border cooperation between this two economy. A billionaire motorcycle sultan of Johor, currently the king of Malaysia under the country's royal system, is holding efforts to bring his government and Singapore nearby. The agreement includes tax breaks, enables smooth border business, and makes it easy for skilled work to move back and forth.
It is unclear whether data centers will provide more work and better for Johor. Most data centers offer 30 to 50 permanent functions. Large stations can create more than 200. But on their own, data centers seem impossible to increase the total wealth in Johor, where the GDP per person is about $ 10,000 compared to about $ 85,000 in Singapore. Nor is it clear that Malaysia can use the development of data centers to attract other technological industries such as chip manufacture.
The greatest danger is the statistical center bubble. The so -called Deep shock (Example of China's AI success that hit Wall Street) can reduce the level and requirements of data stations everywhere if the AI ​​models change to match the low -cost Deepseek method reduces the demand for cutting chips, expanded electric plants, and major data stations.
Salgame, in turn, says “he doesn't worry a little” about the demand for power power from the Princeton Digital data centers is built in Johor. The cheapest, most effective types of AI will only speed up the world's use of AI-and the need for low-cost AI training centers in areas like Johor. “This is just the beginning,” he says.
This text appears in April/May 2025: Asian issue of Luck And the headline “Malaysia's power station.”
This story was previously shown Bahati.com
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