Due to the high demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence, Malaysia is becoming a leading data center country in Southeast Asia and beyond.

In the last few years, the nation has drawn billion-dollar investments in data centers, including from Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia. 

James Murphy, APAC managing director at DC Byte, says that a significant amount of investment has been made in Johor Bahru, a small city located on the border with Singapore.

Johor Bahru has been identified as the fastest-growing market in Southeast Asia, according to DC Byte's 2024 Global Data Centre Index.

The research shows that the city has a total data center supply of 1.6 gigawatts, which includes committed, under-construction, and planned facilities. A data center's capacity is commonly determined by how much electricity it uses.

Japan and India are the only countries in Asia that could surpass Malaysia in capacity once all planned capacity is operational. In terms of live data center capacity, Singapore and Japan had previously led the region. 

A comprehensive breakdown of China's data center capacity was not included in the report. 

Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong have historically received the most data center and storage investments. 

Still, according to a report from global data center provider EdgeConneX, the pandemic accelerated the world's digital transformation and cloud adoption, creating a surge in demand for cloud providers in developing nations like Malaysia and India.