TM, Nxera plans massive data centre campus in Johor
With room to scale to 200MW.
Malaysia's TM is partnering with Singtel’s Nxera to develop data centres in Malaysia, starting from Johor.
Telekom Malaysia (TM) is Malaysia’s largest fixed-line telco. Nxera is Singtel's data centre business with a substantial stake by KKR.
Johor on hypergrowth
The announced data centre campus is located at Iskandar Puteri in Johor, just 16km from Singapore.
I’ve previously written about Johor as a data centre market.
The die is cast. With over 1.6GW of upcoming capacity, there is no way Johor won’t emerge as a major data centre hub.
AI-ready data centre
The new data centre will be the largest for both Nxera and TM, and designed for "large computing", cloud hyperscalers, and GPU-as-a-service providers.
- Initial phase with 64MW.
- Can be scaled to 200MW.
- LEED-certified green building.
Not much else is mentioned at this stage, beyond it being an AI-ready data centre with support for liquid cooling.
I've previously expressed skeptism about AI data centres in general.
What's the news here?
So how is this announcement different from other data centres? 3 immediate things come to my mind.
- Resources
TM has extensive data centre deployments in Malaysia, including 2 core data centres*. TM has also been busy securing green energy and has already done so for 3 of its data centres. The new facility could potentially tap into that.
Singtel has been talking up AI data centres. While there have been scant publicly released details so far, I assume they plan to bring some liquid-cooling innovations to the table at some point.
- Connectivity
The partnership taps the extensive subsea cables of TM and Singtel’s Digital InfraCo, giving it an unassailable advantage on that front. And as the largest telco in Malaysia, TM has the domestic connectivity to match.
- Regional Play
Nxera has grown rapidly in the region, with large data centres currently under construction in Indonesia, Thailand, and DC Tuas in Singapore. A presence in Malaysia will give it a presence in a fourth country when all data centres go live.
What are your thoughts about this partnership?
