Malaysian and regional digital infrastructure market news.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed in parliament on 24 February 2026 that approvals for data centres unrelated to high technology and AI have been stopped, confirming an informal moratorium in place since mid-2024.
Microsoft has unveiled Southeast Asia 3, its second cloud region in Malaysia, to be developed in Johor Bahru as part of a US$2.2 billion investment that also covers land bought from EcoWorld and Crescendo Corp.
YTL Power and Nvidia have brought an AI data centre online at the 600MW YTL Green Data Centre Park in Kulai, Johor, running liquid-cooled NVL72 Grace Blackwell GPUs alongside Malaysia's own ILMU model.
Malaysia is expected to publish its National Sustainable Data Centre Framework in October 2025, setting a dedicated water tariff of RM5.50 per cubic metre and a possible renewable target for new data centres by 2030.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission is drawing up more plans for the second phase of JENDELA, the national digital network plan, as it pushes to extend high-speed internet coverage in rural areas.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd was recently hit by a cyberattack, with hackers demanding a US$10 million ransom, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said. The prime minister said the government did not hesitate to reject the demand.
Nacsa has strengthened national cyber crisis readiness through the National Cyber Crisis Management Plan, which sets out response measures for critical entities and a duty to report malicious code infections.
