Inside the Minds Steering Malaysia’s Sustainable AI Future
Malaysia’s drive to become an AI Nation by 2030 has entered a new phase: It is one that measures progress not just by investment but by sustainability.
At the Powering the Intelligent Age Summit 2025, organised by the World Economic Forum’s ASEAN Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and MyDIGITAL Corporation yesterday, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) CEO Anuar Fariz Fadzil (right in pic) said that policymakers and industry players must remain grounded in realism to balance the nation’s fast-growing digital infrastructure with environmental, energy and social realities.
“We cannot have AI writing cheques that our bodies can’t cash,” he said, borrowing a line from Top Gun to make a serious point about responsible expansion. “AI is the game we are moving towards, but sustainability means ensuring our people, our infrastructure and our frameworks can keep up — without burning out.”
“Our nation has seen tremendous growth in data centre investments. Today we have 76 data centres in operation and another 22 under construction, mostly in the south,” he said. “Data centres and AI are two things predominantly: They are hungry for power and thirsty for water. So we need to make this growth more palatable and friendlier to nature.”
He explained that sustainability, in his view, cuts across three dimensions: Environmental responsibility, economic durability and human adaptability.
“AI must not just serve the private sector or a few industries. It must remain affordable, inclusive and beneficial for everyone,” he said. “And we need to do this without straining our energy supply or natural resources.”
To achieve this, Anuar said the government, academia and industry must function as a ‘three-pillar approach’ driving both infrastructure and talent readiness. MDEC, he added, is working with multiple ministries and regulators through the National Data Centre Task Force to align new investments with the country’s energy-transition roadmap and the nation’s decarbonisation goals.
“AI will define the next decade of growth,” he said. “But if we do not evolve our frameworks for energy, water and human capital, we could be paying for it later. The goal is to make sure this ecosystem is sustainable for the long haul.”
Meanwhile, MyDIGITAL Corporation CEO and Head of MYCentre4IR Adrian Marcellus (second left in pic) concurred that Malaysia’s AI ambitions must be pursued without compromising affordability or environmental integrity.
“AI is inevitable and that’s why we need more compute power, not less. It is something that’s going to happen, but the question is how we do it responsibly in a manner that does not deplete our resources and keeps energy tariffs affordable.”
Adrian said policymakers should begin viewing data centres as critical national utilities rather than merely foreign investments.
“For years we have been inviting data centre investments, then scrambling to find enough water and electricity,” he said. “It’s time to flip that approach. We need a demand-planning process, that is to know how much compute power we need, where it should be located and how to manage it efficiently.”
He also pointed to Malaysia’s Transitioning Industrial Clusters (TIC) pilot in Bintulu, where the government and industry are using AI to help factories decarbonise while boosting productivity.
The Bintulu site has been selected as Malaysia’s first TIC, part of a global framework led by the World Economic Forum to transition heavy-industry zones into low-carbon hubs. Locating the pilot in Bintulu recognises its existing industrial base and infrastructure, while setting a clear target of boosting green growth. It is estimated that the initiative could contribute around RM12 billion to GDP, 19,000 new jobs and a reduction of 21.35 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions by 2040.
The project aims to bring together public and private stakeholders to co-develop innovative solutions in areas such as green energy, digitalisation and workforce transformation, signalling a shift from traditional industrial investment towards aligned growth in productivity, sustainability and job creation.
“The goal is not just to reduce emissions,” said Adrian. “We want to decarbonise while creating jobs and lifting GDP. That’s what AI for sustainability should look like.”
Microsoft Malaysia director of legal and government affairs Adilah Junid (second right in pic) said the focus should be on designing technology that is efficient and powered by clean, carbon-free energy.
“Technology’s purpose is to deliver benefits and improve wellbeing,” she said. “All the investment in infrastructure means little if it isn’t energy-efficient, responsibly built and inclusive.”
Adilah said policy alignment between federal and state levels will be crucial to ensure AI infrastructure growth complements national goals for energy, governance and resource management. She added that Microsoft’s regional training initiative aims to equip 800,000 people across ASEAN with AI literacy to support inclusive adoption.
From a global perspective, Dr Ginelle Greene-Dewasmes, initiatives lead for AI and Energy at the World Economic Forum, said Malaysia’s hyperscale expansion is outpacing renewable generation, making sustainable policy planning critical.
She outlined three priorities for what she called a “net-positive AI-energy future”: Designing for efficiency, deploying AI to accelerate sustainability and shaping demand wisely through responsible consumption models.
Ginelle added that Malaysia is well positioned to lead by example in the region, given its strong digital foundations and clear national direction.
“The sustainability of AI infrastructure is now inseparable from the resilience of national energy systems,” she said, adding that global experience shows the best outcomes come from aligning digital growth with renewable expansion. “By integrating data centre planning into national energy strategies, Malaysia could set a new standard for balancing innovation with responsibility.”
Ginelle also urged ASEAN countries to collaborate more closely on cross-border energy sharing and digital infrastructure planning, describing it as “the next frontier of sustainable growth”.
She said the World Economic Forum is working with partners in the region to explore green compute corridors — digital clusters powered by renewable sources — that could allow Malaysia to export both clean energy and AI services. “This is Malaysia’s opportunity to design a model for sustainable AI that others can follow,” she said.
Moderator Steve Duckworth, country lead at EPAM, concluded that Malaysia’s US$61.3 billion in cloud and data centre investments reflects both progress and pressure.
“Embedding sustainability into every layer of Malaysia’s AI ecosystem is essential,” he said. “This is about balancing competitiveness with long-term resilience.”
The panel agreed that Malaysia’s leadership in AI will not be defined by how fast it scales but by how responsibly it builds.
As Anuar summed up, “AI is the future. But we can’t burn out the world before the future arrives.”
