AirTrunk, one of the most prominent players in the Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) hyperscale data centre market, has announced plans to develop its second cloud and AI-ready data centre in Malaysia. The facility named AirTrunk JHB2 (JHB2) will be located in Iskandar Puteri, Johor region. The JHB2 announcement was made by AirTrunk’s Founder and CEO, Robin Khuda with the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Johor, YAB Dato’ Onn Hafiz Ghazi.
In a press release, AirTrunk revealed that JHB2 will be scalable to over 270 MW. The additional capacity will support Malaysia’s fast-growing digital economy and follows the establishment of the landmark Johor-Singapore special economic zone (JS-SEZ).
“As Malaysia establishes itself as a digital powerhouse, it is a privilege for AirTrunk to contribute to this growth over the long term and deliver shared benefit for the people of Malaysia,” said Robin Khuda. Adding, “AirTrunk’s data centres serve as essential infrastructure that will help boost productivity and enable new products and services that can drive economic growth.”
“Ensuring high value employment and training opportunities, like those offered by AirTrunk, alongside the economic contribution of digital infrastructure also ensures a positive legacy for Johor. This will surely help in achieving the vision of Maju Johor by 2030,” said Johor Chief Minister YAB Dato’ Onn Hafiz Ghazi.
This announcement follows the opening of AirTrunk’s first data centre in Johor, 150+MW AirTrunk JHB1, in July 2024. Combined, AirTrunk is investing over RM 9.7 billion in Malaysia, providing more than 420MW of IT load.
Like JHB1, the new data centre will feature AirTrunk’s liquid cooling technology for managing the high-density demands of AI and aim to save energy. JHB2 is designed to meet the highest standards of efficiency and security, with a low design PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.25 and multiple renewable energy options available to customers. To support Johor State Government’s aim to diversify water sources, AirTrunk is scoping treated greywater as a recycled sustainable water supply for our campuses’ operations.
AirTrunk Country Head, Malaysia, Pei Jet Lim, said, “AirTrunk’s new JHB2 data centre campus confirms the importance of Malaysia to AirTrunk. Combining long-term investment with high value local employment, training and social impact initiatives is central to our approach. As with JHB1, we have also continued to pioneer sustainable practices with JHB2, in line with our commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2030.”
Advancing towards its Net Zero 2030 target, AirTrunk recently announced one of the largest onsite solar deployments for a data centre in Southeast Asia at JHB1, as well as the first renewable energy Virtual Power Purchase Agreement for a data centre for 30MW of renewable energy, under Malaysia’s Corporate Green Power Programme.
AirTrunk is working with the leading Malaysian utility company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) to connect JHB2 through TNB’s Green Lane Pathway for Data Centres initiative, streamlining high-voltage electricity supply to an accelerated timeframe of 12 months. AirTrunk is also providing land for TNB to build a new substation, adding resilience to the electricity distribution system in the area. This continuing collaboration, which started from an MoU signed in 2023, opens the door for AirTrunk to explore green solutions with TNB in efforts to advance the energy transition in the region.
JHB2 is AirTrunk’s 12th data centre across five APJ markets – Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore – and adds to its hyperscale data centre platform which now offers nearly 1.8 GW of total capacity.