Can SIJORI become Southeast Asia's data centre engine?

How three markets are building independently and in lockstep.

SIJORI Week kicks off today, which makes it a good moment to ask where data centres in the region are heading. Here are my thoughts.

Johor managing its own momentum

Few data centre markets have moved as fast as Johor. It has gone from 0 MW in 2020 to hundreds of MW operational today, with several GW more under construction or planned. Demand continues to far outstrip supply.

Understandably, that rapid growth has stirred community concern over resource use. Malaysia has responded by tightening the approval process for new data centres, and operators are now parcelled out smaller slices of resources than before.

Malaysia is also raising the bar with new data centre standards, some of them drawn from Singapore. The result is a higher standard across the industry, which I see as a net gain for all.

Scrutiny raises the stakes, though. The onus is now on operators to do more for the communities their facilities sit in. That means developing infrastructure so resource extraction doesn't affect locals, and giving back through education and other initiatives.

Singapore's long game

Singapore won't lose its hub status overnight, not with 1.4 GW installed. But how will it stay ahead in the face of the incredible growth across the region?

For a start, it is doubling connectivity to an island already dense with subsea cable landings, and releasing data centre capacity under a controlled growth strategy through the DC-CFA and other initiatives.

Just today, a data centre leader told me he's confident the 700MW in Jurong Island's Sustainable Data Centre Park will be quickly snapped up.

The bigger play is becoming the region's renewable hub. If that pans out, it will put Singapore right back at the forefront of the data centre buildup.

Batam is winning over doubters

Batam began with plenty of scepticism about its viability. That hesitation is fading. More operators are coming on board, and confidence is building.

It is still far from where Johor was a few years ago. But acceptance is growing, and I'm hearing that bigger brands are building there or considering it. The current phase of Nongsa Digital Park is already fully subscribed.

Early days, yet the signs look positive.

The SIJORI vision is taking shape

Put the three together and something bigger emerges. The region is developing both independently and in lockstep, building the foundation for traditional and AI workloads alike.

Though still far smaller than the superclusters elsewhere, SIJORI punches above its weight. So where will it be in five years' time?