The company has entered into an agreement to acquire greenfield land in the Nusajaya Tech Park, Johor, immediately adjacent to Singapore .
The firm intends to develop the site into a campus comprising a total net floor area of around 242,000 sq ft, with 54MW of total IT power capacity.
The first phase of the development, with an IT power capacity of 18 MW, is expected to be completed in “early 2024”, said GDS.
The Nusajaya site is ideally located to meet regional demand, GDS said, due to its close proximity to the fast-growing city of Johor Bahru as well as to the established data centre hub that is Singapore.
“Given the limited supply of new data centre capacity in the area, it will be highly marketable to hyperscale customers, in particular to GDS’ existing Chinese customers seeking to expand their presence in Malaysia and Singapore,” the company said.
Dato’ Haji Hasni bin Mohammad, chief minister of Johor, said of GDS' move: “Their presence in the Nusajaya Tech Park is the perfect complement to our agenda to drive development in digital transformation and solidifying Johor's strategic location as a hub for regional growth.”
William Huang, GDS chairman and CEO, added: “We are taking the first major step in the execution of our regionalisation plan with this strategically located project.
“Our home market Chinese customers see great potential for digital transformation in Malaysia and the South East Asia region. They are strongly supportive of our development strategy.”
