YTL Kulai, Johor

Spillover AI hub · Kulai, Johor, Malaysia · YTL Power's Green Data Center Park

Johor grew from about 10 MW of data centers in 2021 to about 1,110 MW in mid-2026, on Singapore's overflow, fast grid hookups and Chinese demand for Nvidia GPUs it cannot buy at home. YTL's Kulai park is the flagship: 150 MW delivered, 298 MW contracted and Nvidia GB200 racks live since October 2025.

Johor data center capacity in megawatts, from about 10 MW in 2021 to about 1,110 MW operating in mid-2026, with 602 MW under construction and 2,486 MW planned, and the forces behind the growth JOHOR DATA CENTER CAPACITY, MW 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 ~10START 2021 ~895END 2025 1,110MID 2026 4,198PIPELINE Operating602 building2,486 planned WHY JOHOR Singapore froze new data centers 2019 to 2022, next door TNB Green Lane: grid hookup in about 12 months Chinese firms rent Nvidia GPUs here, e.g. ByteDance Water limits: only air-cooled Tier 3 and 4 approved (2026)
Johor operating
About 1,110 MW
Johor pipeline
About 3,090 MW
YTL delivered
150 MW
YTL target
1.2 GW
Vacancy
0.7%
Hub
Deployments

YTL Kulai

A Utility-Owned Park With Nvidia Racks Live

  • Owner: YTL Power, a Malaysian utility group; it plans to list its data center unit in 2027.
  • Capacity: 150 MW delivered across four operating buildings, one in testing and two under construction; 298 MW contracted, with up to 288 MW delivered by fiscal 2027 and 200 MW more pending. The target was raised from 600 MW to 1.2 GW in June 2026.
  • Tenants: "four to five clients, mostly global hyperscalers," not named.
  • AI cloud: YTL AI Cloud runs liquid-cooled Nvidia GB200 NVL72 racks, live since October 31, 2025, with about 20 MW of GPUs in Malaysia.
  • Power: Tenaga Nasional (TNB) grid plus onsite solar, about 215 MW by the end of 2026.
  • Next: a second campus at Sedenak Tech Park West with Johor Corporation, announced August 2026.

Johor's campuses

Vacancy Is Under 1%

Johor's largest data center campuses
CampusMWTenantNotes
YTL Green Data Center ParkKulai150 delivered; 298 contracted; 1,200 targetGlobal hyperscalers, not named; YTL AI Cloud on GB200 NVL72TNB grid plus onsite solar
Bridge Data Centres MY06SedenakAbout 243 ITByteDance likely anchor; about 221,000 H100-equivalents (Epoch estimate)Grid; three buildings idle as of September 2026
AirTrunk JHB1 and JHB2JohorAbout 150 and more than 270Not named$2.3B green loan for JHB2 (July 2026)
Princeton DigitalSedenak and Kulai190; 200 more at Kulai by 2027Not namedGreen Lane hookup in 12 months
Microsoft Southeast Asia 3Kulai, Tebrau, Nusa CemerlangNot disclosedMicrosoftAnnounced November 2025

Johor's state government had approved 51 projects worth RM183B by November 2025: 17 operating, 11 under construction and 23 not started. Cushman & Wakefield counts 1,110 MW operating, 602 MW under construction and 2,486 MW planned in mid-2026.

Export controls

Chinese Firms Rent the GPUs They Cannot Import

  • ByteDance: a Malaysian cloud operator, Aolani, is deploying about 36,000 Nvidia B200s, over $2.5B of hardware, for ByteDance to use remotely (March 2026). The site is not disclosed.
  • Hard drives by hand: in March 2025 four Chinese engineers flew 80 TB of data to Malaysia to train on about 300 rented Nvidia servers, the WSJ reported.
  • US rules: the 2025 AI diffusion rule was rescinded in May 2025, and a draft rule aimed at Malaysia and Thailand was never finalized. The Commerce Department is drafting a rule against Chinese firms renting GPUs in third countries; the House passed a Remote Access Security Act in January 2026, which is stalled in the Senate.
  • Malaysia's rule: since July 14, 2025, exporting or transshipping US-made AI chips from Malaysia needs a government permit.
  • Singapore case: fraud charges since February 2025 over false end-user statements for servers that may have gone to Malaysia; trial pending.

See Bottleneck Atlas.

Power and water

Johor Now Rations Water and Favors AI

  • Power: TNB's Green Lane, from August 2023, cut grid hookups from 36 to 48 months to about 12. TNB raised its base rate about 14% in July 2025, with rates by voltage that weigh on data centers. Data centers could be about 40% of Johor's electricity demand by 2035, Wood Mackenzie projects.
  • Water: Johor stopped approving Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centers in November 2025 and requires reclaimed water; since March 2026 it approves only air-cooled Tier 3 and 4 projects.
  • Federal policy: Prime Minister Anwar told Parliament in February 2026 that approvals for non-AI data centers are limited.

The region

Singapore Rations, Batam and Thailand Absorb

AI data center markets around Johor and in India
MarketMWNotes
Singapore1,118 operatingSecond capacity call (August 2026): Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel and STT GDC, 200 MW each on Jurong Island; liquid cooling and more than 50% green energy required
Batam, Indonesia360 plannedFirmus and DayOne, up to 170,000 Nvidia GPUs; first service 2027
ThailandApprovals, not MWInvestment board approvals (May 2026): TikTok $25B, DAMAC 200 MW, Bridge 134 MW; Google $1B; the US alleges Moonshot AI trained on GB300s there
Mumbai, IndiaAbout 1,180 operatingIndia's largest market
Visakhapatnam, India1,000 plannedGoogle $15B with AdaniConneX and Airtel; ground broken April 2026
Jamnagar, India120 first; Meta 168Reliance on GB300 by end 2026; see Meta Hyperion

Record

Dataset Record

Dataset
Johor campuses and Southeast Asian and Indian AI data center markets
Sources
YTL Power, Johor state government, Malaysia Trade Ministry, TNB, US Commerce Department, Cushman & Wakefield, Knight Frank, Epoch AI, The Star, EdgeProp, W.Media, WSJ, Forbes, DatacenterDynamics, Reliance
Last verified
October 2026