Investing in Malaysian data centres: capacity, money, contracts, costs and risks

How much data-centre capacity does Malaysia have?

Depends on who counts and what. The consultancies measure IT load; the government measures grid demand. They should not be added together.

The comparison base changes each time (declared, approved, contracted), so the three shares are not a like-for-like trend.

TNB’s pipeline is larger again: 61 projects with 8.35 GW of maximum demand under supply agreements, 42 of them (5.65 GW) connected, with actual data-centre load of 1.26 GW in June 2026 (MBSB via TNB). Data centres were about 6% of TNB’s electricity sales (MBSB via TNB); 68% of secured capacity is in Johor (The Star).

Which campuses are being built, and how big?

Thirty campuses with the operator’s announced megawatts, whether that figure is IT load or total power, status and source. Where the source does not say, we say “not stated”.

Download the ledger as CSV, free to reuse with credit (CC BY 4.0). Announced MW is the operator’s figure, often full build-out, and is not additive across rows.

How much have the big technology companies committed?

The US$15bn, US$6.5bn, US$6.2bn and US$2.2bn commitments total US$29.9bn, or US$31.9bn with Google’s 2024 US$2bn. They cover cloud regions, skills and energy as well as buildings, and are pledges, not spending to date. Google’s “more than 1 GW” in the 2026 announcement is new clean-energy generation for the grid, not data-centre capacity (Google).

How much data-centre investment has Malaysia approved?

The series use different definitions; do not subtract one from another to get annual figures. MIDA gives 2025’s total approvals for all sectors as RM426.7bn in one release and RM431.1bn in a later one (MIDA).

Which Bursa-listed companies earn from data centres?

Contractors, landowners, power-equipment firms and a few owners. Most do not report data-centre revenue separately, so contract awards are the visible exposure, and an award is not revenue already earned.

Values as reported from the companies’ Bursa filings by the outlets cited. Clients are mostly undisclosed.

• Totals that check: Gamuda’s four 2026 data-centre contracts total RM7.00bn (1.72 + 1.71 + 1.79 + 1.78); SunCon’s Johor project totals RM2.51bn (570 + 1,020 + 920.8) (BusinessToday).
• A headline that doesn’t: BusinessToday’s “RM8 billion” for SunCon on 5 Nov 2026 is all of SunCon’s 2026 new orders, not data-centre wins; the data-centre figure in the same article is RM6.75bn from six contracts (BusinessToday).
• YTL Power: 150 MW delivered and 298 MW secured at Kulai in 3QFY26 (The Star).
• Sime Darby Property: about RM7.6bn of lease value from two Elmina data centres on 20-year leases (The Edge), and a fund of up to RM1.25bn for data-centre and logistics assets (The Star).
• Telekom Malaysia: about 70% of TM Nxera capacity pre-sold (NST).

What does it cost to build and run a data centre in Malaysia?

Electricity per kW, which nobody publishes. From the all-in HV Ultra cost on our tariff page for a 100 MW site:

1. At 80% load: 64.35 sen/kWh × 730 hours × 0.80 = RM375.8 per kW of maximum demand a month.
2. At 100% load: 62.79 sen/kWh × 730 × 1.00 = RM458.4 per kW a month.
3. Per kW of IT load at PUE 1.4 and 80% load: RM375.8 × 1.4 = RM526.1 a month.

Ringgit only; no exchange rate is applied. Tariff schedule valid to 31 Dec 2027; AFA and any change to the Connected Load Charge move it.

What are Malaysian data-centre platforms valued at?

No cap rates or yields for Malaysian data centres are public. The disclosed and reported deal points:

• DayOne raised over US$2.0bn in a Series C priced at a 100% premium to its prior round; it did not disclose a valuation (DayOne, 5 Jan 2026).
• Bain may sell about half of Bridge Data Centres at a reported value above US$4bn; this is a report, not a signed deal (w.media, 30 Jul 2026).
• TIME dotCom sold 49% of AIMS to DigitalBridge at an enterprise value of RM3.2bn in 2022; no earnings multiple was given (NST).

What tax incentives can a data-centre investor get?

• DESAC is the incentive built for data centres; see the DESAC page.
• JS-SEZ: data centres are not listed among the eligible activities for the 5% rate in the official MIDA and IRDA text (MIDA and IRDA).
• Malaysia Digital: lists cloud as an enabler, not data centres (MDEC).
• Green allowance: the version for green data centres ended on 31 December 2023 (MIDA).
• SST: 8% service tax on rental and leasing from 1 July 2025, above a RM1m threshold, with business-to-business exemptions (MOF); industrial machinery moved to 5% sales tax (MOF).
• Carbon tax: announced for 2026 for iron, steel and energy, then delayed on 21 April 2026 with no new date (Reccessary).

Can Malaysian data centres import Nvidia GPUs?

Yes. Malaysia’s permit, in force since 14 July 2025, covers the export, transhipment and transit of high-performance AI chips, not their import (MITI). The details:

• Chips are covered by technical thresholds (category 3U090 and related server categories), not by brand (MITI).
• Exporters file an AI Chip Assessment form at least 30 days ahead; penalties reach RM20m for a company (MITI).
• Customs seized 30 servers with advanced AI chips, about RM49.5m, at KLIA on 15 October 2026, the fifth case linked to one syndicate this year (Malay Mail); 72 servers worth RM52.92m were seized in June (The Star).
• The US announced extra licence requirements for AI chip exports to Malaysia and Thailand on 13 May 2025 (BIS); we found no implementing rule. The 15 January 2026 US rule covers China and Macau, not Malaysia (Federal Register).

How can a data centre buy renewable power in Malaysia?

The 30% renewable requirement is decided but its guidelines are not issued (see the rules tracker). New gas generation of up to 7,848 MW is being tendered for 2029–2031 (The Edge).

What are the risks, from the public record?

• Reserved, not used: 58.6% of contracted power was used in August 2026 (Malay Mail), and unused allocations are to be charged (The Star).
• Approvals: new non-AI data centres are frozen since 24 February 2026 (Malay Mail).
• Water: Johor granted 21% of the data-centre water requested in 2024 (EdgeProp) and has approved only Tier 3–4 air-cooled designs since 10 March 2026 (Malay Mail); see water.
• Chips: export-control enforcement at KLIA, and US rules still in flux (above).
• Counts that disagree: Johor’s pipeline is 2.5 GW planned (Cushman & Wakefield), 2.7 GW (JLL) or 8.5 GW (Knight Frank), depending on what each counts (above).

What is not public

We could not confirm these from a published source as of 10 November 2026. Do not assume them:

• Colocation rent per kW in Johor or Greater KL
• Cap rates or yields for Malaysian data centres
• Data-centre revenue for most Bursa companies
• Megawatts for Google’s new campuses
• The clients behind most hyperscale contracts
• The text of the Data Centre Bill

Related

• Building AI data centres in Malaysia: the full guide
• Measuring AI Work in Malaysian Data Centres (open method)
• Johor
• Electricity tariff
• DESAC incentive
• Rules tracker
• Land prices
• GPU clouds