Google commits $15 billion to Malaysia data centers, with power and water projects

Google is pairing a major increase in Malaysian computing capacity with commitments to the resources and workers needed to support it. On November 4, 2026, the company announced a US$15 billion investment for 2027–2028, linking new data center campuses to clean energy, water resilience projects and training intended to reach 800,000 Malaysians.

Part of that infrastructure is already running. Google’s first Malaysian data center campus, at Elmina Business Park in Selangor, is operational. Additional campuses are planned in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. The company says its computing capacity in Selangor will also support its upcoming Malaysian Google Cloud region for enterprise customers.

The facilities are intended to run locally developed digital and AI applications, alongside Google services such as Search, Maps and Chrome used in Malaysia and across Asia-Pacific. The investment builds on Google’s Malaysian digital infrastructure commitment announced in 2024.

Powering the servers, cooling the chips

Servers generate heat, and removing it takes energy. Google says water cooling can reduce a data center’s energy use by approximately 10% compared with air cooling. The company chose water cooling for these campuses after assessments that it says found local watershed supplies were not at high risk of scarcity or depletion.

On electricity, Google plans to enable more than 1 gigawatt of new clean energy capacity for Malaysia’s National Grid, anchored by a collaboration with Tenaga Nasional Berhad. New generation would be developed under Malaysia’s Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme. The partners will also explore round-the-clock clean energy projects to address the intermittency of sources such as solar.

Google says it will pay for all electricity its campuses consume and the direct infrastructure costs of connecting them to the grid. It also plans community initiatives in 2027 intended to strengthen grid resilience and lower household electricity bills in the states hosting its infrastructure.

The water work addresses both supply resilience and pollution. With the Global Environment Centre, Google is planning constructed wetlands, riverbank improvements and pollution monitoring in the Sungai Buloh and Sungai Selangor basins. Those interventions aim to improve raw water quality and reduce the treatment burden downstream.

Four Selangor schools are also set to receive 20,000-liter storage tanks, rainwater harvesting systems and self-closing faucets. Harvested rainwater would replace municipal supplies for non-drinking uses. Google says each school could provide at least two weeks of emergency water capacity for up to 2,000 community members during municipal supply disruptions.

Training reaches beyond data center jobs

The employment estimates are not counts of Google employees. Approximately 6,000 construction-phase jobs would be in construction itself. The operational estimate includes on-site specialists, supplier contractors and workers in businesses serving employees and their families. Google is working with more than 80 Malaysian entities across construction, equipment and services.

Four new training programs target 800,000 Malaysians over 2027–2031, beginning with communities in the campus-hosting states. Their audiences range from schoolchildren to people seeking technical jobs:

• Experience AI Malaysia will certify educators to teach students aged 11–14, emphasizing hands-on problem-solving and evaluating AI outputs.
• Jelajah AI MSME will help microentrepreneurs create searchable business profiles and digital storefronts, starting with a pilot in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.
• AKAD Rakyat will target 19 local councils with AI literacy and productivity training, including designated AI champions to help modernize workflows.
• Data Center Institutes planned for selected polytechnics will begin in 2027. A 10-week curriculum, including practice with a physical data center simulator, aims to train and place vocational jobseekers in deployment and operations roles.