Instead, they learned that Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) had received an application for two three-storey data centre blocks – part of the vast physical infrastructure now being built across Southeast Asia to support cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
To governments, data centres promise foreign investment, digital jobs and a place in the fast-growing AI economy. To nearby residents, however, they can look very different: utility-hungry buildings raising questions over noise, water use, traffic and land suitability.
By July 21, the council had received about 290 objections, and nine days later it announced that the developer’s consultant had withdrawn the application to reassess the site’s feasibility and development components.
The proponent walked out, and local media reported two days later that the proposal had been withdrawn.