Global data centre company Vantage Data Centres officially broke ground on its second Malaysian data centre in Cyberjaya on Tuesday, whilst also signing a deal with electricity company TNB to power it.
The new data centre, KUL2, will be constructed on 35 acres of land next to Vantage’s existing data centre campus, KUL1. The KUL2 campus – which Vantage claims is the largest hyperscale data center campus in the city – is designed to support cloud adoption and growth of AI with 256MW of IT capacity.
Vantage says that KUL1 and KUL2 will sport a total capacity of 287MW once both campuses are fully developed.
The KUL2 campus also has its own dedicated 275kV high-voltage substation via a electricity supply agreement (ESA) with TNB, which was revealed on Tuesday at the groundbreaking ceremony. The substation will supply 500MVA-rated power capacity for KUL2.
TNB’s chief retail officer Kamal Arifin A. Rahman said TNB’s Green Lane Pathway initiative has enabled it to cater more directly to the needs of Malaysia’s fact-growing data centre market.
“Under TNB’s Green Lane Pathway initiative, we have streamlined the process of powering data centers by bringing together all requirements for grid connectivity to be handled through our One-Stop-Centre (OSC),” he said.
The KUL2 campus is part of Vantage’s pledge in May last year to invest an additional planned US$3 billion (MYR13.32 billion) in Malaysia, after entering the market via its acquisition of PCCW DC in 2021. Vantage subsequently signed a deal with Cyberview (the government firm tasked with developing Cyberjaya) to secure land to build KUL2.
Cyberview CEO Kamarul Ariffin Abdul Samad commented that the new Vantage campus was a testament to the popularity of Cyberjaya as a data centre hub. According to Malaysian news agency Bernama, he said Cyberjaya currently hosts 15 data centres, including hyper, from big names like Equinix, Bridge Data Centres, EdgeConneX, Microsoft and NTT.
He also told Bernama that several more data centre announcements for Cyberjaya are in the pipeline.
“I cannot reveal it now because it is still in negotiation. We will make the announcement at the right time,” he said.
Cyberjaya is in direct competition with the southern city of Johor Bahru, which has also become a magnet for data centre investment. According to data centre portal Baxtel, there are currently 14 data centres operated by 12 companies in Johor Bahru, including AirTrunk’s flagship 150MW hyperscale data centre that opened shop last week.
Johor Bahru’s key advantage is its closer geographical proximity to Singapore, where data centre demand is outstripping capacity and driving companies to seek data centre space in nearby locations like Johor and Cyberjaya, as well as Batam in Indonesia.
The country has seen a blitz of new data centre projects in the past year alone. In Jume, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia approved MYR114.7 billion (US$24.3 billion) worth of investments in data centres and cloud services between 2021 and 2023.
“Malaysia has the edge to facilitate more data centres, particularly AI-focused data centres that could also support Malaysia’s aim to create 3,000 smart factories by 2030,” said Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Malaysia's Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), at the Vantage event Tuesday. “All these will help Malaysia position itself as a leading regional hub for AI-enabled manufacturing.”
