A wave of AI server farms is turning Malaysia into Southeast Asia’s digital epicentre, but their high energy use could derail the country’s climate goals, writes Genevieve Mallet, Dialogue Earth.

DATA CENTRES are springing up across Southeast Asia as China and the US vie for Artifical Intelligence (AI) supremacy. Tech giants – from ByteDance and Alibaba to Google and Microsoft – are setting their sights on Johor, Malaysia’s manufacturing hub just across the strait from Singapore. A rich agricultural state, Johor is now also home to sprawling data centre parks.

Since 2023, Malaysia has announced RM99 billion in data centre investments, much of it involving AI facilities, with a further RM149 billion in the near future. With cheap electricity, labour and ample land, Malaysia has proven to be a compelling alternative to its land-constrained neighbour and is set to become the fastest-growing data-centre hotspot in Southeast Asia.