DayOne Data Centres said the investment will support the expansion of its operations, including infrastructure development, shared services, and talent programmes, with Malaysia set to become its largest global operational footprint.

In a statement today, DayOne said it aims to double its workforce and provide 1,200 direct jobs in Malaysia.

It said the expansion is expected to create more than 5,000 jobs across the supply chain, alongside over 200 high-value roles across finance, procurement, investment, and corporate functions at its service centre in Kuala Lumpur.

In Johor, the firm will establish a regional operations and training hub to train more than 1,000 data centre engineers to support artificial intelligence-ready infrastructure.

Deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi welcomed the initiative and stressed the importance of collaboration between government, industry and academia in developing both digital infrastructure and skilled talent.

“We do not just create jobs, we create opportunities. And more importantly, we build talent that can compete globally,” he said.

Malaysia has been at the heart of a regional data centre boom.

It was the fastest-growing data centre market in the Asia-Pacific region in 2024, and roughly 40% of all planned capacity in Southeast Asia is now slated for Malaysia, reported Bloomberg.

At least US$34 billion in data centre investments has poured into Malaysia over the past four years. Among others, Alphabet Inc’s Google committed US$2 billion, Microsoft Corp announced a US$2.2 billion investment, and Amazon.com Inc is spending US$6.2 billion.

The government aims for 81 data centres by 2035.