Taipei: Schneider Electric is confident in Malaysia's ability to support the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, given the country's strong semiconductor ecosystem, expanding data centre industry, and growing appeal among global technology investors.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Schneider Electric Secure Power, East Asia and Japan, vice president, Ivy Xin, said Malaysia's position as a key chip provider has attracted major international technology companies, while also drawing interest from Chinese firms seeking to expand their AI and digital infrastructure investments.
Schneider Electric is a global energy management and automation company that provides solutions for data centres, industrial operations, buildings, and infrastructure, with a growing focus on AI-ready technologies such as power distribution, cooling, and digital infrastructure systems. With solutions spanning over 30 segments, including design, simulation, construction, operations, and maintenance, Schneider Electric is well positioned to support Malaysia's AI infrastructure ambitions.
The company is collaborating with NVIDIA to develop next-generation AI data centre infrastructure, including 800-volt direct current (800VDC) power distribution systems, advanced cooling technologies, and digital twin solutions to support increasingly power-intensive AI workloads. Xin said Schneider Electric is also exploring opportunities to support Malaysia's growing data centre ecosystem, particularly in water and energy management.
"For example, in Malaysia, besides good availability of microchips or integrated circuits, we are in discussion with one of the industry players (the details of which cannot yet be disclosed) to provide fresh water supply to support the recent and future demand for data centres. Fresh water is a critical component of data centre infrastructure as it remains one of the most efficient and cost-effective cooling mediums for servers. As AI data centres require huge power consumption, we are also looking into helping Malaysia to manage energy efficiency, given our collaboration with NVIDIA, which gives a good reference for builders and operators to take as an example," she told Bernama on the sidelines of Computex 2026 here today.
The annual Computex runs from June 2 to June 5 and is a global technology and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) trade exhibition. Meanwhile, as power density requirements continue to increase, Xin said the challenge is to ensure AI infrastructure can be deployed sustainably while meeting increasingly demanding computing requirements.
To address this, she said the company is investing in prefabricated (prefab) data centre modules, which could reduce deployment timelines to between six and eight months from about one year previously. "With prefab, everything is already pre-engineered, pre-tested in the factory itself. You just ship it to the site, and this can significantly reduce the site work. You don't need people running around outside cutting cables, running the integration and testing," said Xin.
She highlighted that prefab solutions are becoming increasingly popular in Malaysia, with about 60 to 70 per cent of projects now adopting the approach. Liquid cooling is also becoming a key component of AI infrastructure, as it helps remove the large amounts of heat generated by high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), offering greater efficiency than conventional air-cooling systems.
On talent development, Xin said careers in the data centre industry have become increasingly attractive as AI gains prominence, encouraging more young people to pursue engineering and technology-related disciplines. "The data centre segment, because of AI, is much more attractive than before, thanks to the growing prominence of NVIDIA founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang, who has also increased interest in engineering. Just look at Jensen. Now he is a superstar. Engineering by training. So that helps a lot," she said, adding that more students are now choosing engineering-related fields compared with the past.
To support the industry's talent needs, Schneider Electric is in the midst of establishing a regional training centre in Kuala Lumpur later this year to help build a pipeline of skilled workers for the growing digital infrastructure and data centre sector. Xin said Malaysia would continue to be an important hub for Schneider Electric's regional operations, supported by its proximity to Singapore and rapidly expanding data centre ecosystem.
The company is also deploying regional expertise and project execution capabilities in the country to help elevate local skill sets. "We are leveraging regional expertise in Malaysia, and with the training centres we plan to open, I am confident in the development of Malaysian talent," she said.