Google plans to build a new AI and cloud data center campus in Malaysia, investing $15 billion from 2027 to 2028

Google announced on November 4, 2026, a plan to invest US$15 billion in Malaysia during 2027 and 2028, building new data center campuses in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan and adding computing capacity for locally developed AI applications and an upcoming Google Cloud region.

The plan expands the US$2 billion commitment Google announced on May 30, 2024 for its first Malaysian data center and Google Cloud region at Elmina Business Park. The Elmina campus in Selangor is now operational. The broader footprint will support Search, Maps and Chrome for users across Malaysia and Asia-Pacific, while computing capacity in Selangor will serve enterprise customers through that region.

Construction and Employment Projections

More than 80 Malaysian entities are working with Google across construction and civil engineering, network infrastructure, power and cooling components, logistics, legal services, catering and waste management. Google expects the supplier collaboration to continue across the data centers’ multi-decade operational lifecycles.

During the two-year construction phase, Google projects an annual average contribution of US$1.1 billion to Malaysia’s GDP, more than 37,000 supported local jobs a year and US$378 million in average annual labor income. Approximately 6,000 of those jobs are estimated to be in construction.

Once operational, Google projects that the facilities will sustain more than 9,000 local jobs annually, with average wages 45% above the national median. That total includes specialist on-site roles such as data center technicians, mechanical engineers and electrical engineers, supplier contractors, and workers at local businesses used by employees and their families. A full local on-site team is already in place at Elmina, with recruitment underway for technical and facilities-management roles at the other planned campuses.

Power and Water Infrastructure

Google plans to bring more than 1 gigawatt of new clean-energy capacity to Malaysia’s National Grid, working with Tenaga Nasional Berhad on generation under the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme. The collaboration will also explore round-the-clock clean-energy projects to address the intermittency of sources such as solar. Google will pay for all electricity used by its Malaysian data center campuses and the direct infrastructure costs of connecting them to the grid. Community initiatives planned for 2027 include efforts to strengthen grid resilience and reduce household electricity bills in host states.

Google said its custom-designed networking equipment, coolant distribution units, power-distribution systems and chips for general-purpose and AI workloads enable its campuses to operate at a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.12 to 1.14 in tropical climates such as Malaysia’s, compared with an industry average of 1.54. Quarterly PUE figures will be disclosed for each site once fully operational.

Google said its watershed assessments in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan found no high risk of scarcity or depletion, informing the decision to use water cooling, which can reduce data center energy use by approximately 10% compared with air cooling. New replenishment work includes constructed wetlands, riverbank bioengineering and pollution monitoring in the Sungai Buloh and Sungai Selangor basins. At four Selangor schools, 20,000-liter tanks and rainwater-harvesting systems are designed to provide at least two weeks of emergency water for up to 2,000 community members per school during municipal supply disruptions.

Separately, Google announced US$160 million on November 2, 2026 for an off-river reservoir along the Linggi River and a water treatment plant in Negeri Sembilan. Gamuda Berhad has been appointed to build the facilities, which will be owned after completion by Menteri Besar Negeri Sembilan (Incorporated), or MBINS, the state statutory body that manages state assets. The plant is designed to deliver 65 million liters of potable water daily to Google’s planned Springhill Industrial Park campus in Port Dickson and expand public supply, while the reservoir is designed to capture excess river flow and rainfall to help mitigate flood risks in surrounding areas.

Workforce Development

Google said four new training programs aim to upskill approximately 800,000 Malaysians from 2027 through 2031, initially focusing on communities in the states hosting its campuses. Experience AI Malaysia will work with the Ministry of Education, Penang Science Cluster and Raspberry Pi Foundation to certify educators to teach students aged 11 to 14 through hands-on AI problem-solving and evaluation of AI outputs.

Jelajah AI MSME will begin with practical clinics for a pilot group of microentrepreneurs in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan before expanding nationally, while AKAD Rakyat will provide AI literacy and productivity training across 19 local government councils and appoint dedicated council AI champions. Data Center Institutes are planned at selected polytechnics in both states from 2027, offering a 10-week curriculum and practical work with a physical data center simulator to prepare vocational jobseekers for deployment and operations roles.

For Malaysia, the implications extend beyond the campuses alone. The plan pairs Google’s AI and cloud capacity with new grid supply, public water infrastructure and technical training, so the investment’s local value will depend on delivering those shared systems alongside the data centers.