Johor’s Ibrahim Technopolis shifts into high gear to tap Singapore’s data centre rush

[JOHOR BAHRU] With Johor already out of room at Sedenak Tech Park East (StepEast), a hub built to anchor the state’s fast-growing data centre ecosystem, Johor is shifting its focus to a new frontier: StepWest.

The 7,290 acre (2,950 hectare) Ibrahim Technopolis (Ibtec), located within the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), is being positioned as the next landing spot for Singapore-based data centre and logistics players who are feeling the squeeze of rising land costs across the border.

StepEast has already secured more than RM30 billion (S$9.5 billion) in committed data centre investments from 11 international operators, while JLand is targeting around RM40 billion in new investments at StepWest over the next three years, said JLand Group (JLG) managing director Akmal Ahmad at a media briefing on Tuesday (Dec 2) at DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru.

These data centre operators are from China, the US, Singapore and Malaysia, which collectively have a planned IT load of roughly 1,770 megawatts (MW), he added.

JLand is the real estate and infrastructure arm of Johor Corporation (JCorp), the state’s investment arm. It is also the master developer of StepEast and StepWest within Ibtec.

StepWest, which offers 22 plots ranging from 5 to 57 acres (2 to 23 ha) within Ibtec’s larger township footprint, is now being positioned for the next wave of hyperscalers and co-location players.

Ibtec is aiming to be an “innovation sandbox” where companies can test solutions in a live environment before scaling regionally.

The pitch from Malaysia’s southern state: pre-built power, connectivity and transport infrastructure designed to cut time-to-operations, said Akmal ahead of the industrial park’s launch in Kota Iskandar on Tuesday.

Akmal said Malaysian tech parks have often taken a “property-first” approach and struggled to build a real economic engine. “This time, we are creating the economic components first – engaging data centre players and conglomerates like Sumitomo – then we build. It’s built on demand, not speculation,” he said.

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The collaboration with Sumitomo spans three areas: industrial park development and investment flows; green infrastructure, including renewable energy and district cooling systems; and healthcare and social infrastructure, such as senior living facilities.

Akmal said the Sumitomo partnership exemplifies the “demand-led” model JLand is pursuing for Ibtec, where anchor investors commit before large-scale construction begins.

JLand indicated that the site is backed by a power infrastructure of 500 kilovolts (kV) and 275 kV. The plots draw from two separate power management units for redundancy – a critical requirement for data centre uptime guarantees.

A data centre hub

The latest move comes as Johor cements its status as South-east Asia’s fastest-growing data-centre hub.

Knight Frank in a Sep 10 report estimated that aggregate supply in the state nearly doubled to about 5.8 gigawatts over the past 12 months, including 260 MW of take-up in the first half of 2025 alone, with vacancy in major tech parks down to roughly 1.1 per cent.

Singapore’s tight planning controls and limited new capacity allocations are nudging operators to look north. Johor’s industrial power tariffs – about US$0.135 per kilowatt-hour, compared with roughly US$0.239 in Singapore – create a meaningful cost gap for hyperscale players, the consultancy said.

Akmal stressed that Ibtec is masterplanned as an integrated township, rather than as “just another industrial park”.

This township combines industrial and logistics zones, research and development facilities, commercial centres and lifestyle neighbourhoods under a single coordinated blueprint for land use, infrastructure and digital systems.

“We will measure Ibtec’s success not only by the investments it attracts, but by how it helps Malaysians and Johoreans move up the value chain – as workers, entrepreneurs and communities,” he added.

Responding to The Business Times’ queries, Akmal said JCorp’s 34 industrial parks form a “legacy base”, but that Step and Ibtec are being positioned as its new-economy flagships. These are designed around targeted sectors with the infrastructure and environmental, social and governance standards global players expect. 

He added that Singapore-based investors in sectors such as data centres, logistics, and electrical and electronics bring high supply-chain standards into Johor.

“When Johor small and medium enterprises plug into these value chains, they have to meet those standards too – and they gain access to Singapore’s regional networks and new export markets,” he said. 

Akmal said JLand expects hyperscalers at StepWest to start foundation works in 2026, with the first facilities potentially becoming operational around 2028. He stressed that the aim is to run Ibtec as a long-term economic ecosystem rather than a series of standalone land sales.

Project director Faizal Hussin, who oversees Ibtec’s masterplan, said: “The things that keep me awake at night are the basics – power, water and roads.

“We have to make sure the infrastructure stays ahead of data centre and industrial demand. The challenging part really is to translate these awards from masterplan into actual reality… but it’s a task we need to (do).”

JCorp president and chief executive Syed Mohamed Syed Ibrahim said the JS-SEZ was designed so that “Johor’s scale and Singapore’s speed can work in tandem”, with Ibtec serving as a testbed for joint new-economy projects.

He was speaking at Ibtec’s launch in Kota Iskandar, officiated by Abdul Rahman Sultan Ibrahim, representing the Regent of Johor.

“Ibtec is also the first built industrial township in Malaysia to receive the Five Diamond Low Carbon Cities rating… with compact districts, shared resources and neighbourhoods where well-being is prioritised with essential services within reach,” Syed Mohamed said.