Big Tech Will Scour the Globe in Its Search for Cheap Energy

On the southern tip of Malaysia lies the state of Johor, renowned for its beaches and mountainous jungle. But Johor has a new boom industry: data centers to power generative AI, with Microsoft committing more than 2 billion on just such a data center. For the tech giants, electricity has become the new oil. A state-of-the-art AI data center might need 90 MW, enough to power tens of thousands of American homes. With AI applications proliferating, from chatbots to AI agents, needs are growing.