KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Reuters) – French energy technology firm Schneider Electric plans to open a Southeast Asian training centre in Malaysia this year, a senior executive said on Wednesday, as a boom in artificial intelligence infrastructure drives up power demand in the region.
Southeast Asia’s data centre capacity is expected to grow threefold by 2030, according to analysts, with Malaysia emerging as a major hotspot, attracting investments from tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet’s Google in recent years.
The country is also a key hub for semiconductors, accounting for about 13% of global testing and packaging.
AI demand is expected to drive growth in both sectors, putting pressure on firms to improve energy efficiency, the president of Schneider Electric’s semiconductors and battery segment Henri Berthe told Reuters.
“This growth is pushing us to invest in Southeast Asia,” he said on the sidelines of a regional industry forum.
Berthe said the training centre would provide technical skills to the company’s partners and end users throughout the region, including semiconductor firms, using operational equipment ranging from medium‑voltage energy management systems to data centre solutions.
The AI boom has helped boost earnings for Schneider, which makes server racks, power equipment, and the cooling systems necessary for energy-intensive facilities to operate at peak performance.
Berthe said Schneider is also utilising AI to help its customers manage their energy consumption, including through predictive systems that allow firms to adjust their use of chillers according to weather conditions.
Such technologies can help companies decrease their energy use between 2%-3%, a significant amount for power-hungry facilities such as data centres or chip fabs, he said.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by David Stanway)
