Menteri Besar of Johor, Hasni Mohammad has revealed that Microsoft is currently building a data centre in Kulai district, according to a report by Bernama. The construction of the centre seems to be progressing quite well at the moment since the minister also stated that 40% of the project has been completed so far.

A lot of details regarding the project were not discussed by the report through but our quick search showed the project has actually been in progress for the past few years. In fact, the chatters regarding it have started from as early as 2014.

microsoft redmond hq 012 — *Microsoft Redmond campus in Washington, which served as its corporate headquarters.*

Back then, it was reported that Microsoft would invest up to RM 6 billion to establish its data centre in Kulai. However, it seemed that the company took quite some time to greenlit the project since the submission of its building plan for the data centre was only reported in 2018.

Since Kulai district is part of the Iskandar Malaysia development corridor which has been primed since 2006 as the country’s next major tech hub, the choice of the location doesn’t come as a surprise. Still, the timing of the remark by the Menteri Besar is rather interesting, as it came just a week after PM Muhyiddin stated that Microsoft is one of the several tech giants that are interested to turn Malaysian into a regional hub.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqZrejosqWU

Meanwhile, we have reached out to Microsoft’s representative to obtain further information regarding its data centre project in Johor. So, let’s see if the company, who operates more than 160 data centres throughout the world, has more to share about it.