Singapore vs Malaysia Data Centers: Mapping the Private Market

This article combines Speeda’s private company data with findings from Speeda’s original reports on Southeast Asia’s data center market, bringing the regional market shift into focus through a company-level view.

Singapore remains established. Malaysia is becoming the expansion market

Southeast Asia’s data center market is entering a new phase of expansion, but the opportunity is increasingly moving beyond established hubs.

In recent Speeda report <Capacity Unleashed: Southeast Asia’s Data Centre Boom>,  Southeast Asia’s data center capacity could grow at a 35% CAGR from 2023 to 2028. Singapore currently accounts for the largest share of regional capacity, while Malaysia and Indonesia is projected to overtake Singapore as the region’s largest market by 2028. Johor is a major beneficiary of this shift, supported by land availability, infrastructure and proximity to Singapore.

But capacity figures only show one side of the market. For investors, advisors and market researchers, the more practical question is: Who are the private companies behind this expansion?

Mapping the private company landscape

Using Speeda’s company data, we screened companies across relevant server hosting/colocation industries and local industry classifications(SIC), then reviewed company-level business descriptions to identify entities directly involved in data center operations, development or colocation.

This produces a different view from a conventional market report.

Singapore: a deeper established operator base

Our screening identified 46 private Core Data Center* entities in Singapore, combining reported financial data available in Speeda.

The largest companies by reported revenue include (part):

*Core Data Center means entity-level evidence indicates that the company owns, operates, develops, or provides physical data center/colocation facilities.

The list also includes Princeton Digital Group, Iron Mountain Data Centre, Cyxtera, Keppel DC, Sandhill Solution and other private entities.

This makes Singapore particularly useful for peer benchmarking and company-level research: the market contains a relatively mature group of identifiable private operators with financial information.

Malaysia: fewer established private operators, but a rapidly expanding pipeline

Malaysia’s private company universe is smaller in our screening, with 23 Core Data Center entities identified and added reported financial data available in Speeda.

The financial data reveals a different profile (part):

Malaysia’s market is therefore not simply a collection of new project announcements. There are already private operators with meaningful reported financial scale.

The development pipeline, however, is expanding much faster than the established company base.

The Singapore–Johor relationship matters

The distinction between the two markets is not simply “Singapore versus Malaysia.” The two markets are increasingly interconnected.

Singapore offers connectivity, an established digital ecosystem and a mature financial and business environment. Malaysia, particularly Johor, provides greater room for large-scale development.

Speeda’s research on Southeast Asia’s data center market describes this as an emerging SMI triangle, with Singapore serving higher-value, high-density infrastructure while Malaysia and Indonesia offer greater space and cost advantages for hyperscale development.

The Johor-Singapore relationship also means that company research should not always be conducted on a country-by-country basis. Operators can have different entities, projects and investment structures across the two markets.

For example, Speeda’s company data and industry insights can help researchers move from: Market → country & industry → company → financials, rather than relying solely on project announcements or market-capacity estimates.

What does the private market actually look like?

The comparison highlights three differences:

Singapore

• Larger established private-company universe
• More companies with usable financial data
• Greater presence of mature operators and colocation businesses

Malaysia

• Smaller current private-company universe
• Fewer companies with reported financials
• Rapidly expanding development activity, particularly in Johor

For investors and advisors, this creates different research priorities.

Singapore may offer a stronger universe for peer benchmarking and operating-company analysis.

Malaysia may offer greater interest for market mapping, new-entrant identification and expansion tracking.

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