Vantage Data Centres, has announced that it has closed the acquisition of a hyperscale data centre campus located in the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ). This will be the data centre provider’s third campus in Malaysia.
The campus, JHB1, is one of the largest of its kind in southeast Asia and sits on 30 hectares of land, equivalent to around 40 football fields. Once fully developed, it will deliver more than 300MW of IT capacity across three data centres.
The acquisition was finalised using a portion of funds from a fresh US$1.6 billion investment led by existing Vantage investors – an affiliate of Singapore’s Government of Investment Corporation (GIC) and a subsidiary of UAE’s Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
Vantage, which is also backed by US alternative asset manager DigitalBridge Group, announced the completion of the funding round at the same time as the JHB1 deal.
Vantage Data Centers’ APAC president Jeremy Deutsch notes that the acquisition of JHB1 will support the company’s growth strategy in the region. “DigitalBridge’s vision and long-standing investment, now bolstered by new commitments from anchor investors GIC and ADIA, will drive our continued growth and expansion in the region,” he says.
“We are bringing one of Southeast Asia’s largest and most advanced hyperscale campuses into our platform, enhancing our ability to deliver sustainable and scalable infrastructure for AI and cloud customers across the region at rapid speed and scale.”
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At more than four times the size of Singapore or over 3,500 km², the JS-SEZ comprises Iskandar Malaysia, Pengerang, and nine flagship zones. These designated areas facilitate investments across 11 sectors: business services, digital economy, education, energy, financial services, food security, green economy, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, and tourism.
Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) highlights that the JS-SEZ enables Singapore businesses to “establish complementary operations” and access “competitive resources” in Johor, while analysts tout the SEZ as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for cross border investors.
According to a report by Knight Frank, Johor is the fastest-growing data centre hub in South-east Asia. Inclusive of 2GW of new project announcements, data centre supply has nearly doubled to 5.8 GW over the past one year.
Economists have also noted other value-add impacts of data centres including stimulating domestic supply chains, creating new jobs and spurring workforce upgrading.
