KUALA LUMPUR — Streaming a video, making an online payment, shopping online or using an AI-powered service involves data being stored and processed somewhere.

Much of that happens in data centres — facilities that house computer servers and other equipment used to store, process and transmit data.

Malaysia is seeing growing investment in data centres and cloud computing as demand for digital services and artificial intelligence increases.

For households, the effects are likely to be less obvious than the headline investment figures, but they can be seen in terms of jobs and business opportunities, as well as the demand data centres place on electricity, water and other infrastructure.

A data centre is a facility that houses computer servers and other equipment used to store, process and transmit data.

These facilities provide the physical infrastructure behind many digital services, including cloud computing and applications that rely on large amounts of computing power.

Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) describes modern data centres as infrastructure that supports cloud computing and artificial intelligence services and enables businesses to access digital capabilities.