Google Plans US$15 Billion for Malaysian Data Centres, Clean Energy and AI Skills in 2027 and 2028

Google has announced plans to invest US$15 billion in Malaysia over 2027 and 2028, covering data centre campuses, more than 1 gigawatt of new clean energy for the national grid and programmes to train about 800,000 Malaysians in AI and digital skills by 2031. The plan was unveiled on November 4 at the Mantap Malaysia Bersama AI event in the presence of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to Google’s announcement and the Prime Minister’s Office.

Google’s first Malaysian data centre campus, at Elmina Business Park in Selangor, is already operating, and new campuses are planned in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. Capacity in Selangor will also support an upcoming Google Cloud region. The company says it works with more than 80 Malaysian suppliers, and that the 2027 to 2028 construction phase should add an average of US$1.1 billion a year to GDP and support more than 37,000 local jobs a year, about 6,000 of them in construction. Once running, the sites are projected to sustain more than 9,000 jobs a year. These are Google’s own estimates.

The skills plan has four strands: Experience AI Malaysia with the Ministry of Education, Penang Science Cluster and the Raspberry Pi Foundation for school students; Jelajah AI MSME with Pepper Labs for microentrepreneurs; AKAD Rakyat with Arus Academy, aimed at 19 local councils in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan; and Data Center Institutes to train technicians. Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said the plan sets a high standard for sustainable digital infrastructure.

What it means in practice

Water and power are the sensitive points. Google says its risk assessments found local watersheds in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan were not at high risk, so it will use water cooling there, while funding river and school water projects. That will be read against Johari’s warning that states without enough water will not get new data centres. Google also says it will pay for 100 per cent of the power its campuses use and the direct cost of grid connections, as competition for land and power grows after Amazon’s Selangor land purchase for a data centre.

What to watch is when the Malaysian cloud region opens, how much of the 1 gigawatt of clean energy is contracted through Tenaga Nasional Berhad, and whether Google publishes site-level water and energy-efficiency figures for the new campuses.