Google is buying and leasing more land in Malaysia on which to develop data centers, signing a deal for a plot outside Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian real estate firm EcoWorld this week announced it had leased 92.44 acres of land in the Eco Business Park V in Selangor to a local subsidiary of the cloud giant. It has also signed a deal to sell another 58.1 acres in the same park to the company. Eco Business Park V is a 769-acre business park outside Kuala Lumpur.
“The sale of the 58 acres of land at EBP V presents an opportunity for the group to realize the value of our matured industrial landbank and host another hyperscale data center operator at one of our industrial parks, this time in the Klang Valley,” Dato’ Chang Khim Wah, EcoWorld president and CEO said.
“Since FY2024, we have entered into four notable sales of industrial lands to market-leading data center players, which demonstrates the suitability of our business parks as ideal sites for digital and high-tech operations. Collectively, the proceeds from these sales amount to RM1.586 billion ($339m).”
EcoWorld’s wholly owned subsidiary Quantum Alpha Sdn Bhd has entered into an agreement to build and lease Pearl Computing, the local affiliate Google that it has previously acquired land through.
Under the lease agreement, Quantum Alpha will build and lease data center shell and cores and associated structures on approximately 92.44 acres of land in Eco Business Park V, Selangor Darul Ehsan to Pearl Computing.
The project is set to be completed at the end of October 2027, and leased to Google for 20 years – with two five-year extensions available. The total value of rent payable over the term is estimated to be up to RM4.8 billion ($1bn).
EcoWorld noted that while Quantum Alpha is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group, discussions are underway with various parties to jointly undertake the project. EcoWorld may sell up to 20 percent of the subsidiary.
Another EcoWorld subsidiary, Paragon Pinnacle, has also entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Pearl to sell 58.1 acres in the Eco Park to the Pearl affiliate for RM266.1 million ($60.1m), for a proposed data center development.
Details of the planned data centers weren’t shared.
In the announcements, Pearl is described as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Raiden APAC Pte Ltd, and part of a multinational technology corporation headquartered in the United States.
Google previously announced plans to develop a $2 billion cloud region in Malaysia in May 2024; the company signed a deal to lease 49 acres of land in Sime Darby Property's Elmina Business Park in Greater Kuala Lumpur, before leasing a further 77 acres. The Sime Darby project is set to break ground in Q2 2024, for a 2026 completion.
Google originally announced plans for a cloud region in Malaysia in 2022.
EcoWorld owns a landbank totaling more than 9,000 acres across the Klang Valley, Iskandar Malaysia, and Penang. The company has previously sold land in Johor to Microsoft.
