Google breaks ground on Malaysia data centre

Google today broke ground on its US$2 billion data centre and cloud region in Malaysia.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia was a guest of honour at the ceremonial groundbreaking.

Google in Malaysia

Here's the details:

• Google's 1st data centre and cloud region in Malaysia.
• Located at Elmina Business Park in Selangor.
• Will offer sovereign cloud solutions.

Google first mentioned that it will establish a cloud region in Malaysia in 2022; and said in May that it will cost US$2 billion.

Notably, it will partner with Malaysian firm Dagang NeXchange Berhad (DNeX) to offer sovereign cloud solutions - using Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) - for regulated industries such as public services, healthcare, and energy.

Rapid growth in Southeast Asia

Google is rapidly growing its data centre and cloud footprint across Southeast Asia, after years of investing solely in its Singapore data centres.

Yesterday, it also announced a US$1 billion investment to build cloud and data centre infrastructure in Thailand in Bangkok and Chonburi.

There are just two operational Google Cloud regions in Southeast Asia currently: Singapore and a Google Cloud region in Jakarta, which opened in 2020.

Google in Singapore

Google's investment in Singapore remains the largest by far, with four Google-built data centres.

2013 - 1st data centre*.
2017 - 2nd data centre; S'pore region launched*.
2021 - 3rd data centre (Invested US$850 million).
2024 - 4th data centre (Invested US$5 billion).

*Google's 1st and 2nd data centres are adjacent to each other.

As of 2024, Google Cloud says it has invested US$5 billion in technical infrastructure in Singapore to date.

• The sharp increase in investment between 2021 and 2024 hints at a massive expansion within its existing three data centres, despite the timeframe overlapping with Singapore's data centre moratorium.
• Google is highly supportive of Singapore's effort to clamp down on scams, including partnering with the CSA of Singapore to block risky sideloaded apps - the first country globally to get the feature.

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