Data centres, GPUs, power and cloud capacity in Malaysia.
Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Perak and Global Vision Lab Sdn Bhd are exploring a proposed AI data centre in Perak with planned capacity above 100MW. According to The Sun, the parties have signed a non-disclosure agreement and a letter of consent for preliminary assessments, and the capacity is a planning target that has not been finalised.
Research firm BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, says Johor's data centre industry could use more than 90% of the extra electricity generated in Peninsular Malaysia over the next five years. According to The Edge Malaysia, BMI estimates the state's data centres will need about 30 TWh a year by 2031, or 18% of the peninsula's total supply, up from 6% in 2026.
Malaysia plans to launch a National AI Compute Exchange in the first quarter of 2027 to make compute more affordable, an MDEC official told the MDX Forum 2026 in a report by The Edge on 29 September. The forum, which drew about 300 representatives, focused on what Malaysia can build on top of its data centre investments.
OpenAI has contracted dedicated AI compute from two Firmus sites in Malaysia under a multi-year deal, the Australian infrastructure company announced on 8 September. According to Tech Wire Asia, OpenAI becomes an anchor customer and Firmus's total contracted capacity across all customers rises above 900MW.
Malaysia is seriously evaluating Huawei's Ascend 910C chips as the backbone of a RM2 billion sovereign AI initiative, according to a Bloomberg report carried by The Edge that cites unnamed people familiar with the matter. It is unclear how many chips would be bought, and the Prime Minister's Office, the Digital Ministry, Huawei and Telekom Malaysia did not respond to requests for comment.
Selangor approved 39 data centre projects between 2021 and 2025, state investment, trade and mobility committee chairman Ng Sze Han told the state assembly in Shah Alam. According to The Star, the projects were expected to create more than 2,400 jobs, and he said data centre demand has not put pressure on domestic water supply.
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