Malaysia is betting on data centers to boost its economy. But experts warn they come at a price.


Construction workers walk outside a Data center building in construction in Sedenak Tech Park in Johor state of Malaysia, on Sept 27, 2024. — AP

JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia: Winson Lau has always had contingency plans. But he wasn't prepared for data centres.

Lau relies on water and electricity to operate his thriving export business in Malaysia’s Johor province, where he raises a kaleidoscope of tropical fish in rows of aquariums, including albino fish with red spots that can fetch up to US$10,000 (RM44,420) from collectors. His contingency plans in the event of an outage involve an intricate system of purifying wastewater through friendly bacteria and an alarm system to quickly switch to backup power.

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