Malaysia’s gas-guzzling data centre boom clashes with its clean energy goals

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Malaysia is rapidly expanding its data centre industry with 54 operational sites by 2024 and projections to reach 81 by 2035, conflicting with its goal to reduce fossil fuel consumption by 2050. This expansion, powered mainly by gas, highlights tensions between economic ambitions and environmental commitments.

Malaysia has staked its economic future on becoming Southeast Asia’s data-centre capital. It has also promised to slash fossil fuel use by 2050. Right now, those two ambitions are pulling in opposite directions – and gas is winning. There were 54 operational data centres across Malaysia by the end of 2024, with that number expected to rise to 81 by 2035, government minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir told parliament last year. In the handful of years from 2021 and mid-2025, some 144.4 billion...