Winson Lau’s tropical fish export business in Johor, Malaysia, survived storms and blackouts—until data centers arrived. Foreign-funded tech infrastructure now threatens his $10,000 albino fish and the province’s fragile energy grid. Johor’s data center capacity exploded from near-zero in 2019 to 1.6 gigawatts today, with projections topping 5 gigawatts by 2035. This demand equals over half of Malaysia’s 2023 renewable energy capacity, raising alarms as 95% of national power still comes from fossil fuels.
Big data centers mean power shortages. It’ll be crazy, warns Lau, who lost $1 million during a recent 30-minute outage. He’s relocating his farm to Thailand amid fears of prolonged blackouts. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s government touts data centers as salvation from its middle-income trap, hoping they’ll create high-tech jobs and modernize industries battered since the 1990s Asian financial crisis.
Tech companies exploit resources in poorer nations just like colonial powers mined silver. Data extraction leaves no taxes or lasting value,says researcher Sofia Scasserra.
The reality clashes with political promises:
- Each center creates only 30-200 permanent jobs
- They consume energy for 36,000 U.S. homes per facility
- Cooling needs exceed temperate countries by 30%
Johor already hosts 22 foreign-operated centers, including projects from Microsoft and China’s GDS Holdings. These U.S.-China AI battlegrounds use Malaysia’s cheap land and tax breaks while exporting data globally through undersea cables. Singapore’s 2019 data center pause worsened Johor’s strain, attracting $31 billion in 2024 investments alone.
Environmental risks loom large. Researchers warn Johor’s water parks and population growth complicate drought responses, while outdated grids struggle with AI’s energy hunger. Building renewables can’t keep pace with data centers’ instant power demands, argues analyst Alex de Vries. As Malaysia eyes global top-10 data center status by 2030, Lau’s abandoned aquariums symbolize a nation caught between economic ambition and resource reality.
