ArtificiaI intelligence (AI)-ready data centres are in the news this week, with Malaysia and Indonesia playing host to new or planned facilities.
Asia Pacific and Japan hyperscale data centre specialist AirTrunk says it has commenced operations in Malaysia, following the official opening of its flagship Malaysian 150 megawatt (MW) hyperscale data centre in Johor Bahru.
Named AirTrunk JHB1, the initial phases of the new data centre will provide over 50MW of capacity for its large technology customers.
Spanning over 10.3 hectares, JHB1 is strategically located in Johor Bahru at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Servicing a major cloud availability zone, the data centre offers strong domestic and international connection to regional technology hubs including neighbouring Singapore, with an end-to-end cross-border connection strategy.
Along with a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15, making it one of the most efficient data centres in the country, the new facility features an AI-ready design with AirTrunk’s first deployment of direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology alongside traditional indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) and high-density racks. This pioneering approach, says AirTrunk, reduces energy consumption by up to 23%.
JHB1 is also equipped with a solar-ready roof, able to provide over 1MW of power for this phase, making it one of the largest onsite solar deployments for a data centre in Southeast Asia.
Also name-checking AI is BDx Indonesia, a joint venture of BDx Data Centers, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, and Lintasarta, which has announced the Phase-1 completion of its AI campus CGK4 in Jatiluhur, Indonesia. The CGK4 campus is Indonesia’s first renewable-powered AI data centre park scalable up to 500MW.
The facility offers high power density of up to 120 kW per rack, innovative liquid cooling technologies and high-speed connectivity that, it is claimed, enable it to meet the demands of Generative AI workloads. The dedicated AI data centre is supported by an integrated 24/7 on-site team within the campus and offers eight layers of security, reinforced by industry-leading certifications.
Mayank Srivastava, CEO of BDx Data Centers, explains: “BDx Indonesia is committed to enable Indonesia to become an AI-first nation. We are the only data centre provider in the country offering up to 700MW of development potential spread across Indonesia. This sustainable and interconnected mesh of digital infrastructure is engineered to support training workloads at central sites, and inference workloads across multiple locations nationwide.”
It's no surprise perhaps that both initiatives are stressing energy efficiency. The vast amount of energy required by data centres as AI adoption grows is a controversial subject already, one discussed in more detail in a major Developing Telecoms feature published today.