The Data Centre Boom in Growth Triangle: Singapore, Johor & Batam/Riau is the second report published by Effective Thoughts, produced in collaboration with SMCSE Solutions and Wisdom Inn for Skill Enhancement (WISE).
It examines how cross-border digital infrastructure is reshaping the Singapore-Johor-Riau (SIJORI) Growth Triangle, and argues that today’s data centre boom is the latest evolution of a model the corridor has followed since 1989.
Key findings
- Johor’s growth has few parallels. Operational data centre capacity rose from 401MW to 897MW in a single year, a 124% increase. Johor is now the fifth-largest primary data centre market globally, and nearly level with Singapore’s installed base, which took decades to build.
- Singapore grows by permission, Johor by market. Since its 2019 moratorium, Singapore has released new capacity in capped allocation rounds: 80MW awarded in 2023, and at least 200MW in the round closing in 2026.
- The old division of labour is back. In the manufacturing era, Singapore kept capital and high-value functions while Johor and Batam supplied land and labour. Today, Singapore holds the customers and the connectivity, while Johor and Batam supply the land and the power.
- Demand is outrunning the grid. If every Malaysian data centre with a signed energy-supply agreement builds out in full, demand will exceed 7GW, about a quarter of Peninsular Malaysia’s generation capacity.
- Batam sits outside the main framework. The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone ties Singapore and Malaysia together, but no equivalent instrument yet binds Batam/Riau in.
The full report is free to share, in full and with attribution, for non-commercial purposes under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
