Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country, is attracting another multi-billion dollar investment from U.S. Big Tech, as the region capitalizes on the AI boom.
Oracle recently announced a minimum investment of $6.5 billion towards establishing a public cloud region in Malaysia. A cloud region is the physical location of cloud facilities. This new venture will provide Oracle customers in Malaysia with access to AI services, aiding Malaysian organizations in advancing their digital applications.
“Malaysia provides unique growth opportunities for organizations seeking to expand using cutting-edge digital technologies,” said Garrett Ilg, Oracle’s executive vice president and general manager for Japan and Asia Pacific.
The investment from Oracle will support Malaysia’s goal of creating 3,000 smart factories by 2030, according to the country’s minister of investment, trade, and industry.
Following Oracle’s commitment, Amazon’s cloud computing division also pledged $6.2 billion in investments for Malaysia. Microsoft and Google have made similar multi-billion dollar investments in Malaysian cloud infrastructure.
Malaysia aims to establish itself as a tech hub in Southeast Asia by attracting semiconductor investments along with data centers to enhance its position in the chip supply chain.
The country is formulating a national cloud office and AI strategy, as mentioned by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during Google’s new $2 billion data center complex groundbreaking ceremony. Google anticipates creating 26,500 jobs and generating $3.2 billion in economic activity by 2030 through this investment.
Southeast Asia cloud investments
Other economies in Southeast Asia are also drawing cloud-related investments. Amazon has pledged to invest $9 billion in its existing cloud infrastructure in Singapore by 2028, while Google and Microsoft have announced significant investments in Thailand and Indonesia, respectively, to expand cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities.
The global push to invest in computing capacity, particularly for AI services, is underscored by a consortium of companies committing $100 billion to build new data centers, signaling a growing emphasis on data center infrastructure globally.
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