Malaysia-based infrastructure developer YTL Power International and JLand Group have jointly announced a partnership to develop a gigawatt-scale data center campus in Johor, the firms said in a joint statement yesterday. The planned capacity could range between 1.3GW and 1.5GW, as revealed by MBSB Research in a note today.
The proposed campus will add to YTL’s Green Data Center Park in Kulai, which has a planned capacity of up to 1.2 GW. Together, both campuses will potentially host up to 2.7GW of capacity helping YTL meet the growing regional demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads.
YTL is said to be exploring an initial public offering of its data center unit in 2027 which could value the business at RM28 billion, as reported by another research house in July. MBSB said YTL is also in discussion to create its first sukuk financing for its data centers.
The research house noted that YTL’s future plans include about 1GW in the Klang Valley, and expanding to Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and the United Kingdom, which could potentially grow its total capacity to between 3GW and 4GW.
RHB Research meanwhile revealed that Malaysia’s state utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is currently developing a new 500-kilovolt substation in STeP West. This would help YTL Power to secure Energy Supply Agreements with potential data center customers.
STeP West pact
Under the pact between YTL Power and Jland, SIPP Power Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of YTL Power, will acquire about 145 acres of land within Sedenak Tech Park West (STeP), with an option to purchase up to a further 400 acres for future expansion.
YTL Power’s experience in developing and operating large-scale digital infrastructure will bring significant benefit to the collaboration while JLand’s role as master developer of Ibrahim Technopolis (IBTEC), within which STeP West is sited, will be key to enabling the infrastructure and ecosystem for the project. IBTEC is a 2,951-hectare development spearheaded by the Johor government to support the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.
STeP is JLand’s platform for large-scale digital and advanced technology development. STeP West builds on the momentum of STeP East, marking the next phase of growth to support major data centre and AI investments. JLand is the real estate arm of Johor Corporation which manages assets on behalf of the Johor state government. JLand’s subsidiary JLG Technopark Sdn Bhd will be the main collaborator from JLand’s side for the STeP West project.