AirTrunk has announced plans to expand its Johor and Melbourne campuses in Malaysia and Australia respectively.
Expands JHB1 less than a month after launch
The company’s first Malaysian data center JHB1 was launched at the end of last month with a capacity of 50MW.
AirTrunk will now deliver the remaining phases of the campus to provide a total of 150MW across 21,900 sqm (235,750 sq ft) of space in 20 data halls.
The initial tranche of the expansion is expected to be delivered by mid-2025.
The company said its 10-hectare campus will provide more than AU$1 billion ($673m) of investment into Johor over the next 18 months, creating 2,500 jobs during construction and many new jobs for local Malaysian technical and operational staff.
Robin Khuda, founder and CEO at AirTrunk, said in a recent LinkedIn post: “JBH1 is a great example of strong ties between the Australian and Malaysian governments, and our commitment to deeper ties with the South-East Asian region.”
The company first announced plans to expand into Malaysia early last year.
Malaysia has seen significant data center investment over the last few years, taking the spillover from Singapore after the city-state imposed a moratorium in 2019 on data center development.
The Malaysian government recently pledged to address issues of sustainability in the country raised by the data center industry.
AirTrunk begins expansion in Melbourne too
AirTrunk has also commenced the construction of its MEL1 campus expansion in the west of Melbourne.
Plans for the expansion were first announced in June this year.
The expansion will include the construction of the remaining phases of the six-phase project.
At full build-out, the campus is expected to offer a total of 185MW of capacity. Set on over 21.7 acres in West Melbourne, AirTrunk launched MEL1 back in 2017. Phase 1 launched with 5MW of capacity. At the time the company said the site would total 50MW.
May 2023 saw the company complete a 20MW expansion at the campus. The phase 4 expansion was completed in 33 weeks.
The company’s website suggests the site will offer 32,000 sqm (344,445 sq ft) of technical space across 34 data halls once fully built out.
APAC-focused operator AirTrunk was founded in 2016 with plans to develop hyperscale data centers in Australia. The company opened its first facility in Sydney in 2017. Since then, the company has expanded across the region, operating and developing campuses in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore.
