The war in the Middle East has made Malaysia an even more attractive location for data centres, SD Guthrie Bhd president and group chief executive Haris Arshad said.
Haris described Malaysia as the most stable country in Southeast Asia for building data centres, saying investors committing billions of dollars would avoid places at risk of attack. He said the company was riding the wave of investment flowing into the country.
The Middle East had been attractive for data centre investment because of its abundant energy, but the conflict has raised the risks there. Even before the war, Malaysia had drawn data centre investment from Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
SD Guthrie, the world’s largest oil palm planter by planted area, holds more than 210,000 hectares of freehold land and has said it plans to use some of its lower-yielding land for industrial development.
Haris warned that energy supply would need to be addressed as investment pledges grow. Data centres have signed agreements with Tenaga Nasional Bhd for up to 8.77 gigawatts of peak demand, almost a third of the country’s 2025 installed capacity.