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Winson Lau has always had contingency plans. But he wasn’t prepared for data centers.Lau relies on water and electricity to operate his thriving export business in Malaysia’s Johor province, where he raises a kaleidoscope of tropical fish in rows of aquariums, including albino fish with red spots that can fetch up to $10,000 from collectors. His contingency plans in the event of an outage involve an intricate system of purifying wastewater through friendly bacteria and an alarm system to quickly switch to backup power.But these measures can’t compete with the gigantic, power-guzzling and thirsty data centers being built in Johor. The province is on track to have at least 1.6 gigawatts of data centers at any given moment from nearly nothing in 2019, making it the fastest-growing data center market in Southeast Asia, according to a report published in April.Data centers are large, windowless buildings filled with racks of computers that need lots of electricity. To prevent overheating, they rely on energy-intensive air conditioning systems using pumped water. Increasingly used by tech companies for running artificial intelligence systems, the power demand from future facilities in Malaysia may rise to over 5 gigawatts by 2035, according to researchers at Malaysia’s Kenanga Investment Bank. This is more than half of Malaysia’s entire renewable capacity in 2023.Over 95% of the energy available to Malaysia in 2022 was from fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. The country is now fifth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas globally. And with planned renewable projects, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in September that the country was “confident of a surplus of energy” to fuel large projects and keep exporting.But Lau doesn’t fancy the chances of his homegrown business competing against the foreign-funded behemoths for energy. Even without data centers, Malaysia is susceptible to power interruptions because of storms, including one that lasted 30 minutes last year and killed 300,000 fish, costing Lau over $1 million. He worries that data centers would result in longer outages.To survive, he is moving to Thailand and already scouting potential locations for a new fish farm.“Big data center is coming and there is shortage of power,” he said. “It’ll be crazy.” Costs versus benefits Malaysia is betting that potential economic growth from data centers justifies the risk. Once touted as an Asian tiger on the cusp of becoming rich, its industries shrunk in the late 1990s after the Asian financial crisis. It has since languished in the middle-income trap. Data centers, the government hopes, will modernize its economy and indirectly create thousands of high-paying jobs.But experts worry that Malaysia, and others like Vietnam, Indonesia and India vying for billion-dollar investments from tech giants, may be overstating data centers’ transformative capabilities that also come at a price: Data centers gobble up land, water and electricity while creating far fewer jobs than they promise. Most data centers provide 30 to 50 permanent jobs while the larger ones create 200 jobs at most, according to a report by the American nonprofit Good Jobs First.Add to this the rapid increase in power and water use and some experts like Sofia Scasserra, who researches digital economies at the Amsterdam-based think tank Transnational Institute, said that tech companies exploiting resources in poorer countries while extracting data from their populations to get rich is akin to “digital colonialism.” She compared data extraction to silver mining in Bolivia, which enriched colonial Spain but left nothing behind for Latin America.“They are extracting data in the same way. Data doesn’t even leave (behind) taxes,” she said.Indeed, only a small portion of Malaysia’s data center capacity is actually for Malaysian users. Through a network of submarine cables that fans out into the world, they service East Asia, China, and Europe. And the data centers themselves are run by foreign companies like America’s Equinix and Microsoft as well as Chinese competitor GDS Holdings that works with tech giants like Alibaba.These data centers are also on the front lines of AI competition between the U.S. and China. Shortly before he left office, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration proposed new rules that would limit exports of advanced AI chips made by U.S. companies like Nvidia, part of a strategy to deprive China and other U.S. adversaries from gaining access to AI technology through data centers in places likes Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Although it’s unclear if the Trump administration will retain the policy, which hasn’t yet taken effect, GDS Holdings saw its stock drop more than 18% on the day of the announcement. Filling the void For now, artificial intelligence is driving the hunger for even more data centers, with tech companies seeking out biggerand cheapersites worldwide as a part of a “global strategy,” said Rangu Salgame, chairman and CEO of Singapore’s Princeton Digital Group, which is building a 170-megawatt site in Johor. Data centers larger than 40 megawatt typically need land the size of seven football fieldsabout enough power for 36,000 American homes, according to data center service provider Stream Data Centers.That’s costly to build in rich nations like the U.S., which over time has built more data centers than any other country but where land comes at a high price. Enter Malaysia, with its inexpensive land, excess power capacity and tax incentives. The country was the fastest growing data center market in Asia Pacific in the first half of 2024, according to global real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield. This makes Malaysia the eighth-largest data center market in terms of operations and the fifth-largest behind China, India, Japan and Australia when accounting for projects already in the pipeline.Globally Malaysia ranks 14th in terms of operational capacitystill smaller than Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublinbut it is on track to be among the top 10 markets in five to seven years, according to Pritesh Swamy, who heads research on data centers in Asia for the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.“We are talking about a region that really grew at a pace that nowhere in the world has seen,” Salgame said.Next door to Malaysia is Singapore, which paused the construction of new data centers in 2019. The moratorium was over concerns that the energy-guzzling infrastructure was straining the tiny country’s limited resources. In 2019, data centers consumed 7% of the total electricity in the city-state that imports both power and water while aiming to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. They have been trying to build data centers sustainably since 2022, when the moratorium ended.In the meantime, Malaysia has stepped in to fill the void, attracting investments of over $31 billionthree times the investments for 2023in the first 10 months of 2024, according to research by real estate firm Knight Frank. Johor already has 22 mostly foreign data centers spanning over 21 hectares, according to the research firm Baxtel. That’s the equivalent of nearly 40 football fields, although not all of the daa centers are operational. Concerns over power and water shortages The data centers that are running look anonymous from the outside. But they can be identified by the telltale signs of barbed wire fences, CCTV cameras, and patrolling security guards. Elsewhere, a thicket of cranes and workers operating construction machinery is transforming the landscape in the sleepy province.Salgame said that he hoped data centers could accelerate clean energy growth and experts like Putra Adhiguna of the Jakarta-based think tank Energy Shift Institute agreed that this could happen, but warned that the sheer volume of unforeseen, future demand complicates the transition.“Add data centers on top of that, it just becomes much more challenging,” he said.Tropical Malaysia is warmer than the countries that were initially preferred by data centers, including Ireland, and would require more water and power for cooling, said Alex de Vries, the founder of Digiconomist, a research company studying the unintended consequences of digital trends. He said that these companies are moving to new countries after their promises of economic growth were found to be “empty.” And while new solar or wind farms can be built faster than other forms of energy, data centers need a lot of electricity from the get-go.“These big tech companies are trying to distract you from the really simple math,” he said.Malaysia acknowledges that the energy demand from data centers is “substantial” but believes that Johor’s rise as a “data center powerhouse” will make it a “key player in Southeast Asia’s digital ecosystem,” said Malaysian Investment, Trade and Industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz in an email. He added that Malaysia was writing efficiency guidelines for data centers and has a policy to let them buy clean energy directly from producers.But concerns are rising among residents about potential water shortages in the futureechoing the concerns of other developing countries like Chile. Malaysia, like much of Southeast Asia, is at risk of extreme weather including drought, according to a 2022 U.N. climate change report. Francis Hutchinson, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said that Johor has faced recent disruptions and new stressors, like a growing population and water parks to boost tourism, could exacerbate the crisis.“Water, more than power, is a potential issue,” he said. AP writer Eileen Ng contributed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island contributed to this report.. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Anirruddha Ghoshal and Vincent Thian, Associated Press
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Kentucky Fried Chicken is being uprooted from its ancestral home state in a shake-up announced Tuesday by its parent company that will relocate the chain’s U.S. corporate office to Texas.The food chain now known as KFClaunched by Colonel Harland Sanders and his secret blend of 11 herbs and spiceswill be based in Plano, Texas, and about 100 KFC corporate employees will be relocated in the next six months, said Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.The relocation of KFC’s corporate office from Louisville brought a quick response from political leaders in Kentucky.“I am disappointed by this decision and believe the company’s founder would be, too,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. “This company’s name starts with Kentucky, and it has marketed our state’s heritage and culture in the sale of its product.”Beshear, a Democrat, said he hopes Yum rethinks moving KFC employees out of Kentucky. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg also expressed disappointment with the corporate reshuffling of workers to Texas, noting that the brand “was born here and is synonymous with Kentucky.”Yum said the move is part of its broader plans to designate two brand headquarters in the U.S.in Plano and Irvine, California. KFC and Pizza Hut will be headquartered in Plano, while Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill will remain based in Irvine, the company said. Yum added that 90 U.S.-based employees who have worked remotely will be asked to eventually relocate to the campus where their work occurs.Yum and the KFC Foundation will maintain corporate offices in Louisville, the company said. The governor and mayor said they were grateful those jobs are being retained in Kentucky’s largest city.“I’ve asked to meet with the Yum CEO soon and am heartened Yum will retain its corporate headquarters and 560 employees here,” Greenberg said in his statement. “I will work tirelessly with Yum’s leadership to continue growing its presence in Louisville.”Employees being shifted will receive relocation and transition support, the company said.Yum said that designating two brand headquarters is meant to foster greater collaboration among its brands and employees.“These changes position us for sustainable growth and will help us better serve our customers, employees, franchisees and shareholders,” Yum CEO David Gibbs said in a news release.Yum also announced it would provide a $1 million endowment to the University of Louisville’s College of Business to fund Yum-sponsored scholarships. And the company said KFC will continue its brand presence in Louisville with the goal of building a first-of-its-kind flagship restaurant.KFC’s ties to Kentucky run nearly a century deep. In 1930, at a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, Sanders began feeding travelers and spent the next nine years perfecting his blend of herbs and spices, as well as the basic cooking technique, KFC’s website says.And the goateed entrepreneur’s likeness is known globally, having been stamped on KFC restaurant signs and chicken buckets. There are now over 24,000 KFC outlets in more than 145 countries and territories around the world, the brand’s website says. Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order meant to expand access to and reduce costs of in vitro fertilization and issued a presidential memorandum calling for “radical transparency requirements” from the government, which he suggested could reduce wasteful spending. On the campaign trail, Trump called for universal coverage of IVF treatment after his Supreme Court nominees helped to overturn Roe v. Wade, leading to a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states, including some that have threatened access to IVF by trying to define life as beginning at conception.Trump, who was at his Florida residence and club, Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday, also signed another executive order as well as a presidential memorandum. The second executive order outlined the oversight functions of the Office of Management and Budget, while the memo requires the government to detail the “waste, fraud and abuse” that’s found as the Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, looks to cut government spending.DOGE has often fallen short of the administration’s promises of transparency. Musk has taken questions from journalists only once since becoming Trump’s most powerful adviser, and he’s claimed it’s illegal to name people who are working for him. Sometimes DOGE staff members have demanded access to sensitive government databases with little explanation.Trump took more than 30 minutes of questions Tuesday on a range of topics and bashed the Biden administration throughout, highlighting issues such as its handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, Venezuela policy, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.Trump said he thought he had a “good chance” to end Russia’s war in Ukraine but bristled at suggestions that the U.S. and Russia had begun negotiations to end fighting without Ukraine playing a role. He even seemed to suggest that Ukraine was to blame for a war that began only after Russia invaded that country.“Today I heard, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump said of Ukraine’s leaders. “You should have never started it.”In anticipation of questions about his administration’s efforts to slash federal spending, the president said he wrote down examples of government programs around the world which he then listed off at length. They included funding to promote voter turnout in India and social cohesion initiatives in Maliall of which Trump suggested collectively amounted to fraud.Asked about the White House’s arguing in a court filing that Musk wasn’t the head of Trump’s government efficiency efforts, Trump said: “You could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot.”Trump said he thinks “women and families, husbands, are very appreciative” of his executive order on IVF, which offers a possible solution when a woman has trouble getting pregnant. The procedure involves retrieving her eggs and combining them in a lab dish with a man’s sperm to create a fertilized embryo, which is then transferred into the woman’s uterus in an attempt to create a pregnancy. IVF is done in cycles, and more than one may be required.Barbara Collura, president and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, said that what the White House put out “looks extremely promising.”“The biggest barriers for people to building their families are the out-of-pocket costs, the lack of insurance coverage for this care,” she said.Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, said: “Donald Trump’s executive order does nothing to expand access to IVF. In fact, he’s the reason IVF is at risk in the first place.”Duckworth said if Trump is going to follow through on his campaign promise to provide free IVF, he can start by supporting her legislation that would require insurance plans to cover IVF.Trump, who spent the morning at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, spoke to reporters hours before his first joint TV interview with Musk aired in prime time on Fox News Channel. The president acknowledged during it that “inflation is back,” but noted that he’d only been in office a few weeks and insisted “I had nothing to do” with prices that remain stubbornly high.Trump mentioned during that same interview that Musk is “probably not that happy” with things like tax breaks for electric vehicles likely not being included in tax legislation now being discussed in Congress, but he said Musk didn’t seek special treatment for Tesla.“I haven’t asked the president for anything, ever,” Musk added. Asked about potential conflicts of interest between Musk’s governmental efforts and his businesses and how they will be handled, Trump said, “He won’t be involved” and Musk said he’d recuse himself.Musk has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress and others for the methods he and his team at DOGE are using to cut spending, including foreign aid, and eliminate jobs across the bureaucracy.The joint interview follows Musk’s appearance with Trump in the Oval Office last week, when both defended Musk’s approach to federal cost-cutting.Also Tuesday night, an awards program was held at Mar-a-Lago by America’s Future. That’s a conservative group led by Mike Flynn, who briefly served as national security adviser in the Republican president’s first term. The program aims to preserve individual rights and promote American values and traditions, according to its website. The event honored one member each from the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Space Force.The event included a poolside reception, musical performances and dinner in Mar-a-Lago’s Grand Ballroom. The lineup included such names as Russell Brand, Ted Nugent, and Mike Tyson.Trump made an appearance at the event, according to video posted on social media Tuesday night, addressing the crowd on the patio as he stood near Tyson, Flynn and Nugent and declaring, “This is very, very friendly territory.”Trump praised the men, including Flynn, who was one of the leading proponents of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The president called him “the real deal” and indicated he wanted to bring Flynn into his administration, saying he offered him “about 10 jobs.”“Anytime you want to come in, you know that, Mike, OK?” Trump said.Flynn resigned from the first Trump administration less than a month after Trump’s inauguration. He was charged in 2017 with lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russians on Trump’s behalf. He twice pleaded guilty, but Trump pardoned him in the final weeks of his presidency. Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Chris Megerian in Washington and Laura Ungar in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report. Follow the AP’s coverage of President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump. Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price, Associated Press
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