Malaysia has seen its data centre capacity more than double in just two years, becoming the fastest-growing market among major emerging economies.
Explosive growth in Johor Bahru
Savills analysis shows the country added 132% of capacity between 2022 and 2024. Johor Bahru across the causeway from Singapore is the primary driver of this expansion. The city now hosts 1,310 MW of live data centre IT power.
Savills ranks Johor Bahru 18th globally for future development potential in its Power and Place Index. The assessment looked at 54 markets against physical constraints including power, water, and climate. Indonesia’s capacity has risen 66% since 2024. India and Australia have grown 35% and 32%, respectively. Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Finland also expanded rapidly, though their overall capacity remains small on a global basis.
Competing with Singapore
Alan Cheong, executive director of research and consultancy at Savills Singapore, said the city-state should not be considered out of the data centre race despite its limited presence on Savills’ development heat map. Operators who value data security and reduced latency to mission-critical executions are still pinning for a permit to build in Singapore, he said.
Cheong added that land and resource constraints mean “only the cream of the crop will get an allocation to build.” Savills said established markets like Japan, the UK, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands remain strategically important because of connectivity and depth of customer demand. Their growth has been more modest as grid access constraints increase.
Global shifts in location
Globally, the US remains the largest data centre market with around 50 GW of live IT power, up 19% since 2024, followed by China. The most notable shifts are taking place in smaller countries offering alternatives as developers increasingly follow available capacity rather than demand alone.
Paul Tostevin, head of Savills World Research, said the relative growth of countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia in just a couple of years has been extraordinary. He cautioned that emerging markets will need to manage the same pressures increasingly affecting mature data centre locations, including grid access, energy costs, land, and water availability.
While mature markets struggle with rising costs and land shortages, the shift toward smaller nations offering alternatives is reshaping the industry. Developers are prioritizing available capacity over pure demand, leading to rapid expansion in regions previously overlooked. This trend indicates a fundamental change in how global infrastructure is planned and deployed.
