Google's $2 Billion Data Center Breaks Ground in Selangor, Creating Thousands of Jobs

Google is expanding its presence in Malaysia with a new $2 billion data center (DC) in Selangor, which will generate thousands of high-value jobs for local engineers and technicians.

The facility, Google's second in South-East Asia after Singapore, aims to debunk the myth that hyperscale DCs are empty, low-employment 'ghost boxes' once construction wraps up.

According to Ken Siah, principal for global infrastructure market development at Google Asia Pacific, managing Google's proprietary 'all-product area' hyperscale infrastructure requires round-the-clock, highly specialised technical talent, including server operations, hardware deployments, software coding and live troubleshooting.

Google is investing in human capital tracks to ensure local talent fills these high-value positions, including on-the-job upskilling, tertiary skilling programmes, and early science, technology, engineering and mathematics partnerships.