Alphabet commits $15 billion to Malaysia data centers

Alphabet's $15 billion commitment to data centers in Malaysia comes as investors weigh whether Democratic gains in the midterms will slow the AI build-out. The timing is convenient, but the company had already invested $2 billion in Malaysia in 2024, when former President Joe Biden was still in charge. Alphabet also invested $9.5 billion in the U.S. in 2022 under a Democratic president and majority, with a large portion earmarked for data centers. These prior moves suggest the new Malaysia investment fits a longstanding approach that has held across Republican and Democratic majorities.

International data center construction was already growing before the midterms. Microsoft launched its largest data center in India this year, and India's data center market is projected to maintain a 13.37% compound annual growth rate through 2035 — a projection that came out months before the midterms. The body notes that AI demand is so intense and shortages have become such a constraint that tech executives are discussing setting up data centers in space. That underlying demand, rather than election results, appears to be the main driver of continued international expansion, though the body does not explicitly make that causal claim.