Tech giant Google will invest US$15 billion in Malaysia from 2027 to 2028 to build data center campuses in the states of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, in addition to providing clean energy and water security, and upskilling of workers, the unit of Alphabet said yesterday.
“This investment aligns with Malaysia’s development priorities, providing the foundational computing capacity to deliver the upside of innovation across the country while adding local power and water resources as our operations scale,” Alphabet and Google’s president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat said at an event in Kuala Lumpur, as reported by Reuters.
She added that the construction phase for the campuses is expected to contribute an annual average of US$1.1 billion to Malaysia’s GDP and support more than 37,000 local jobs per year. Once operational, Porat estimated that the campuses could sustain more than 9,000 local jobs per year, earning an average income 45 per cent above the national median.
Google’s first campus in Malaysia at Elmina Business Park in Selangor is already operational.
The tech behemoth also plans to add more than 1 gigawatt of clean energy capacity to Malaysia’s national grid.
“Google will also pay for 100 per cent of the power its data centre campuses use and the direct infrastructure costs required to connect them to the grid, while complying with all applicable local regulations,” Google reportedly said on November 2, as reported by w.media.
Google had then said it planned to spend US$160 million to build an off-river storage reservoir and water treatment plant that can deliver 65 million liters of potable water daily for both its upcoming data center campus in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, and for the public use.