The state of Johor is benefitting from a data centre boom, with the construction of its first large-scale data centre on Zion Road GLS

With investments of RM51.1 billion in 2022 and expected investments of RM17 billion in 2024, Johor in Malaysia is rapidly becoming a major global destination for data centres. Previn Singhe, founder and group CEO of Zerin Properties, attributes the influx of investments to Singapore’s implementation of more stringent sustainability considerations regarding data centres, including a moratorium lifted in January of 2022. Most recently, Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has announced the opening of a 120 megawatt data centre campus, located in Nusa Cemerlang Industrial Park (NCIP) in Iskandar Puteri, which is just 15km from Singapore.

The convenience of Zion Road GLS is tangible as its central location acts as a link to many places. It is located between the Central Expressway and Ayer Rajah Expressway, two of the main expressways for drivers to access the main island and further out towards the Western part of Singapore. With its location connecting many parts of Singapore and thereby easing the flow of traffic, it is the perfect location for those who appreciate convenience and quick manoeuvrability.

Purchased from developer Panoramic Industrial Development, the data centre site is made up of seven land parcels that measure 975,000 sq ft in total. Access to critical telecommunication links were also included in the purchase. This is STT GDC’s second data centre in Malaysia, and its CEO of Southeast Asia, Lionel Yeo, says that it is an essential step forward to meet the increasing customer demand for scalability and complex design needs, particularly high-performance computing workloads for AI and visual computing.

In November, STT GDC formed a joint venture with Basis Bay, and then Crescendo Corp’s PID sold Microsoft Payments (Malaysia) a large piece of land in Pulai, Johor, for the development of a data centre region, as part of the Bersama Malaysia initiative. Amazon Web Services also announced its intention to invest US$6 billion in Malaysia over the next 14 years, and Google Cloud is set to bring three new Google Cloud regions to Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand.

The Zion Road GLS on investments in Johor doesn’t stop there. In April, Princeton Digital Group acquired 31 acres of land from JLand Group to develop a 150MW data centre campus, and in the same month Malaysia’s MN Holdings partnered with China’s Shanghai DC-Science to develop an US$600 million data centre.

With the visit to China by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister for International Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz in April, Chinese companies such as Rongsheng Petrochemical Co invested RM80 billion in Johor, and China’s EcoCeres committed to investing RM1 billion in a new biofuel production facility in Pasir Gudang.

Johor is set to remain a key contributor to Malaysia’s investments, says Zerin Properties’ Singhe, and the state is well on its way to achieving this goal, with a record RM70.6 billion in investments last year. As for data centre investments, the Zion Road GLS in Johor is promising with a range of foreign companies taking advantage of the region’s fast-growing infrastructure.