Microsoft announced an investment worth $2.2 billion (~RM10.5 billion) in Malaysia over four years. It is the largest investment ever made by Microsoft in Malaysia since it started its operations in the country 32 years ago.
Investments will be made in the form of building digital infrastructure, creating AI skills opportunities, establishing a National AI Center of Excellence and improving the country's cyber security capabilities. It is expected to provide an opportunity to 200,000 individuals in Malaysia to improve their skills in artificial intelligence.
In addition, this investment shows Microsoft's commitment to developing Malaysia as a hub for cloud computing and related advanced technologies, including generative AI. This will support the productivity, competitiveness, resilience and economic growth of the country. It will also support the growth of the Malaysian developer community.
Just two days ago, Microsoft announced a $1.7 billion investment in Indonesia after CEO Satya Nadella met with President Jokowi. Investments into the AI arena are currently growing rapidly in the Southeast Asian region. In Johor, for example, YTL confirmed that the supercomputer that will be built in their AI data center is one of the first to be equipped with the world's most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) system, the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72.