NTT Data seeks to buy land in Johor Bahru to build data centre

NTT Data announced on Thursday (Dec 5) a proposed land acquisition in Malaysia’s Johor Bahru to build a data centre amid the city’s rising importance as an economic zone.

Spanning about 27.7 hectares in Gelang Patah, the IT solutions arm of Japan’s NTT Group said the site will become one of the largest data centre campuses in Asia-Pacific. The campus will comprise six buildings offering an IT load capacity of about 290 megawatts (MW). NTT Data plans to launch the first building with an initial capacity of 48 MW in April 2027.

Doug Adams, chief executive and president of Global Data Centers at NTT Data, said: “Johor Bahru is an increasingly important cross-border economic zone due to its proximity to Singapore.”

Malaysia and Singapore signed a memorandum to develop the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone in January this year, which market observers said is emerging as a prime destination for global businesses pursuing a “China plus one” strategy. 

Malaysia is in the midst of a boom to build data centres as global tech players rush to meet the demand for infrastructure and computing power to enable artificial intelligence (AI). Multibillion-dollar investments such as those by Google to build data centres are expected to double the country’s current capacity to around one gigawatt over the next two years. Data centre capacity is measured by the amount of electricity consumed, as defined by watts.

NTT Data did not mention how much the land would cost. It added that the facility will feature new technologies such as direct liquid cooling to meet the growing demand for AI applications while integrating an energy-efficient and sustainable design.

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When completed, the campus’ IT load capacity will raise NTT Data’s capacity in Malaysia significantly. The company operates six facilities in Cyberjaya, near the capital of Kuala Lumpur, with a total IT load capacity of 20 MW.

Globally, it operates one of the largest data centre platforms, with more than 150 facilities across more than 20 countries.