Google to Invest US$15 Billion in Malaysia Data Centers Through 2028

Google (GOOGL) will invest US$15 billion in Malaysia over 2027 and 2028 to expand its data center campuses, the company said on Wednesday, announced alongside Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The plan covers new campuses in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan plus the existing Elmina Business Park site, which is already operational.

The construction phase is expected to contribute an average of US$1.1 billion a year to Malaysia's GDP and support more than 37,000 local jobs per year, Google said, generating US$378 million in average annual labor income. About 6,000 of those jobs are estimated to be in construction. Once the facilities are operational, they are projected to sustain more than 9,000 jobs per year, with wages averaging 45 per cent above the national median.

Google said it will add more than 1 gigawatt of clean energy capacity to Malaysia's national grid and pay for 100 per cent of the power its campuses use, plus the direct infrastructure costs to connect them. The campuses are designed to run at a Power Usage Effectiveness of 1.12 to 1.14. The company is also working with more than 80 Malaysian suppliers across construction, engineering, power systems and logistics.

The investment includes four programs to upskill about 800,000 Malaysians by 2031, covering educators, microentrepreneurs, civil servants and vocational jobseekers. Google said it will also fund shared water infrastructure in Negeri Sembilan alongside the digital infrastructure buildout.

The plan builds on a US$2 billion investment Google announced in 2024, which included its first data center and Google Cloud region in Elmina Business Park. Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent, were up 0.37 per cent in delayed trading.