Malaysia wins data‑centre flows

Malaysia is pulling in the next wave of Southeast Asia data-centre money, and strategists say that investment is now feeding through to the ringgit. (freemalaysiatoday.com) On April 20, Hassan Malik of Loomis Sayles said the ringgit could retest fresh 2026 highs against the US dollar, citing resilient growth, export strength and investment linked to Malaysia’s fast-growing data-centre industry. Deutsche Bank was also cited among firms expecting further currency strength. (theedgesingapore.com) (businesstimes.com.sg) The companies behind that buildout are not small tenants. Oracle said in October 2024 that it would invest more than US$6.5 billion in a Malaysia cloud region, and Amazon Web Services said in August 2024 that it planned to invest MYR29.2 billion, or about US$6.2 billion, in Malaysia through 2038. (oracle.com) (aboutamazon.sg) Google joined that list in May 2024 with a RM9.4 billion commitment for its first Malaysia data centre and Google Cloud region. ByteDance said in June 2024 it would invest RM10 billion in Malaysia for artificial intelligence and data-centre expansion, including Johor. (miti.gov.my) (mida.gov.my) Alibaba Cloud is expanding too. Malaysia’s deputy digital minister said in December 2025 that Alibaba had launched its third Malaysian facility and planned a fourth data centre by 2026. (thesun.my) Most of this activity is clustering in Johor, across the strait from Singapore. Johor approved 42 data-centre construction projects in the second quarter of 2025, and the state government later said those approved projects were worth RM164.45 billion. (edgeprop.my) (malaymail.com) Singapore’s own constraints helped open that lane. After the city-state paused new data-centre approvals in 2019 and later resumed them selectively, developers and cloud groups looked to nearby Johor for cheaper land and power with low-latency links back to Singapore. (thediplomat.com) (arc-group.com) That has turned Malaysia into a more immediate rival for regional capital that might also have gone to Indonesia. Indonesia’s market is still growing fast, with Research and Markets saying it was worth US$2.81 billion in 2025 and could reach US$6.08 billion by 2031, but much of that capacity is centered on Jakarta and Batam and remains in buildout mode. (researchandmarkets.com) (businesswire.com) Malaysia’s pitch is now simple and concrete: hyperscalers are already signing, Johor already has approvals, and currency strategists are treating those projects as part of the country’s growth story. (freemalaysiatoday.com) (thestar.com.my)