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Malaysia set to overtake Singapore and Korea in data centre capacity by 2027

Malaysia's data centre boom was built on a decade of foundational work that's now paying off.

Paul Mah

23 Oct 2025 — 2 min read

Photo Credit: w.media

Did you know: Malaysia is set to overtake Singapore and Korea in data centre capacity by 2027, and every other major data centre market in APAC by 2029, excluding China?

Despite the huge jams in KL this week, the hall at MYCDC was packed, with standing room only after the first 10 minutes. The big question: Can Malaysia blaze a path to become a data centre epicentre?

To answer this, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel with a diverse group of experts - MDEC's Wan Murdani, TM Nxera's Mahathir Said, and CLSA's Joe L.

Here's what I heard.

The foundation was laid years ago

In case you thought everything happened by chance, we are reminded that today's astounding growth is really the result of more than a decade of work championing data centre investments in Malaysia.

So when opportunity knocked, the solid base of existing data centres and the knowhow of serving this industry became the catalyst for hypergrowth.

Growth unlikely to be repeated

Panellists were positive about continued growth, but we must also be realistic. "The growth that we've witnessed in the last three years from a very low base is unlikely to be repeated."

On the bright side, vacancy is extremely low with a lot of data centre capacity yet to be fully built up. Which means we have a very big pie left to go around.

Onward to a digital economy

Finally, it shouldn't be about building data centres only. Sustainable growth requires a rich ecosystem and robust value chain.

Indeed, I've met at least two born-in-Malaysia data centre equipment suppliers that have successfully ridden the wave of data centre growth to success. And then there's related industries such as semiconductors.

Additional demand could come from areas such as public sector demand, encouraging digitalisation, and support for industries like financial services.

Start of a new journey

Once we move away from seeing the data centre as a race for more capacity, everything shifts.

In that light, we are really at the beginning of a fantastic new journey of not just data centres, but a full digital economy. And Malaysia is only just getting started.