Asia | A glitch in the matrix

Asia is weighing data-centre ambitions against sustainability

Malaysia and Singapore illustrate the region’s resource balancing act

An illustration of a factory building with a chip image on the front with smoke containing binary code spewing out of the chimneys on a background of yellow and green shapes and flowers.
Illustration: Ben Jones
|Johor

The jungles of Johor, a Malaysian state, were cleared to grow pepper in the 1800s. After that came rubber and oil-palm plantations, followed by factories making electronics. Today data centres are thriving there, and are embroiled in a geopolitical tussle between America and China. But in Johor, other concerns are on people’s minds: how to make the data-centre boom sustainable.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “A glitch in the matrix”

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