KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Malaysia’s data centre capacity is expected to nearly quadruple by year-end, supported by the country’s strong development pipeline, according to Juwai IQI.
Its co-founder and group chief executive officer Kashif Ansari said developers are implementing new sustainability and social measures to reduce both water and energy consumption.
“Local content requirements are also increasing the benefits to Malaysia's economy. We expect operating data centres in Malaysia to reach about 2,055 megawatts (MW) by the end of this year.
“That is nearly four times the level of the first quarter of 2025, when 522 MW was operational,” he said in a statement today.
The international real estate technology group expects eight to nine gigawatts (GW) to have been added to Malaysia’s capacity by 2030.
Kashif added that unlike in some markets where developers build speculatively before they have customers signed up, most newly built data centres in Malaysia already have committed users.
Pre-leased capacity in the country climbed from about 0.85 GW in the first half of 2025 to 1.2 GW in the first half of this year, making Malaysia second in Asia Pacific after Japan and showing how strong and well-regulated the Malaysian industry is.
“Another public demand has been that data centres deliver more jobs and income for Malaysians. This is why Selangor has required that all new data centres use Malaysian firms to provide 30 per cent of the content they install in their facilities.
"At the federal level, the government also encourages data centres to use local content, with tax incentives, and Malaysia has stopped approving new data centres that are not artificial intelligence-focused, hyperscale-grade, high-efficiency projects,” he said.
These projects bring the most investment while also using the least power and water.
Kashif noted that while Malaysia has demanded more of the data industry, its competitive advantages have helped to continue to attract the right kind of data centre developers.
“Malaysia is on track to become Southeast Asia's largest data centre market by 2030, and it will be significantly more sustainable than it is today,” he said.
