STT GDC has confirmed plans to develop a second data center campus in Malaysia, weeks after announcing its first.
The company this week announced plans for a 120MW campus on 22 acres in the Nusa Cemerlang Industrial Park (NCIP) in Johor.
Construction of the first 16MW building will commence in the coming months and is expected to be completed by 2025. Specifications and timelines for future buildings were not shared.
“We are excited to embark on this new phase of our growth. Our establishment of a second data center campus in Malaysia underscores our unwavering commitment to advancing the country's digital transformation,” said Lionel Yeo, CEO Southeast Asia, STT GDC.
“Our expansion into Johor is a natural step forward as we deliver vital digital infrastructure services that not only meet the surging and ever-evolving demands of our customers for complex design and scalability, but also anticipate future needs, particularly high-performance computing workloads for AI and visual computing.”
Earlier this week local real estate firm Crescendo Corporation announced it had sold seven parcels of land to STT GDC Malaysia.
The land banks – all located in NCIP – total just under 90,600 sqm (975,000 sq ft) and were acquired for RM117 million ($25 million). The land sales, made across two deals, are expected to close in Q2 and Q4 of 2024.
The news comes not long after STT made its first announcement to expand into Malaysia. Earlier this month, the company announced a Malaysian joint venture with local operator Basis Bay to develop two data centers in Cyberjaya, outside Kuala Lumpur.
The companies are planning two buildings on a three-acre campus. The campus will total just under 20MW; one 2.8MW building and one 16.5MW facility. The first building is due live in 2024 and the second should be completed by 2025.
Located close to the border with Singapore, Johor is quickly becoming a data center hotspot as developers and operators look to secure overspill from Singapore amid ongoing capacity issues.
Chinese operator GDS – in which STT GDC is an investor – is developing two sites in Johor. The company recently launched three buildings at the Nusajaya Tech Park (NTP), having acquired land there in July 2021 and broke ground on the site in April 2022. Phase 1 of the campus (consisting of three buildings) offers a total net floor area of 22,500 sqm (242,200 sq ft) and 69.5MW.
GDS is also developing another data center campus at YTL’s upcoming Green Data Center Park. In April 2022, YTL Power International Berhad and GDS signed a partnership to co-develop 168MW of data center capacity across eight data center facilities at the park. The first phase of the development will enter service in 2024.
Other developers and operators in Johor include PDG, AirTrunk, Equinix, Keppel, ChinData's Bridge DC, and Yondr.