Google Malaysia Investment: $15bn for Data Centres

A new Google Malaysia investment of US$15 billion will pay for more data centre campuses, clean energy and skills training in 2027 and 2028. Google announced the plan on Wednesday, November 4, Reuters reported in a story carried by the Bangkok Post.

New campuses in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan

Google plans to build new campuses in the states of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. They will join its first Malaysian campus at Elmina Business Park in Selangor, which is already running.

Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, said the investment fits Malaysia's development priorities and provides "the foundational computing capacity" for innovation while adding local power and water resources. The Star reported that she announced the plan at the Mantap Malaysia Bersama AI programme at Universiti Malaya, and that it builds on Google's digital infrastructure investment announced in 2024 and its more than 15 years in the country.

The numbers

• Investment: US$15 billion over 2027-2028.
• GDP: construction expected to add an average of US$1.1 billion a year to Malaysia's economy.
• Jobs: more than 37,000 local jobs a year during construction, and more than 9,000 once the sites are running, with wages averaging 45% above the national median.
• Energy: more than 1 gigawatt of clean energy capacity added to the national grid.
• Skills: four new programmes to train 800,000 Malaysians over five years.

Power and water promises

Data centres use large amounts of electricity and water, a growing concern across Southeast Asia. Google said it will pay for 100% of the power its Malaysian campuses use, as well as the direct infrastructure costs of connecting them to the grid. The plan also includes steps to strengthen water security.

Google said the campuses will run at a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.12 to 1.14. PUE compares a data centre's total energy use with the energy used by its computing equipment, so a figure closer to 1.0 means less energy goes to cooling and other overheads.

What it means for Thailand

Malaysia and Thailand are competing hard to become the region's data centre hub as demand for AI and cloud computing grows. Google itself announced in September 2024 that it would invest US$1 billion in Thailand, with a data centre in Chonburi and a cloud region in Bangkok. The much larger Malaysian figure shows the scale Thailand is up against as it tries to attract more AI infrastructure.

For more on Google's AI push, see the Apple-Google Gemini AI deal and Google Gemini's copyright case at the EU court. Business owners can also check our guide to the best AI tools for business.

Photo: a Google data centre in Council Bluffs, Iowa, by Chad Davis / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. File photo.