The Google Group intends to invest two billion dollars in Malaysia to establish its first data center in this country, the government announced, joining other technology giants pumping money into the region in search of growth opportunities.
For its part, the Malaysian government said that the money that Google will invest will support 26,500 jobs in various sectors in Malaysia, such as health care, education, and finance. The report comes days after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced his intention to attract investments worth at least $107 billion to the semiconductor sector.
Weeks ago, Anwar revealed his intention to build the largest integrated circuit design complex in Southeast Asia, while offering incentives including tax exemptions and support measures to attract international technology companies and investors.
“Google’s first data center and Google Cloud Region are the largest planned investments in Malaysia to date, a place that Google has been proud to call home for 13 years,” said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google and its parent company Alphabet.
“This investment builds on our partnership with the Malaysian government to strengthen its ‘Cloud First Policy’, including best-in-class cybersecurity standards,” she added.
In turn, Malaysian Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafar Abdul Aziz said that the funds will “significantly boost” Malaysia’s digital ambitions outlined in a key project for 2030.
He added that the data center and cloud region “will enable our transformational and service-based sectors to benefit from artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to advance the global value chain.”
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced its intention to spend $2.2 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing in Malaysia. Its president, Satya Nadella, pledged during his tour in the region to invest billions in Thailand and Indonesia as well.
In turn, Amazon said it will spend $9 billion in Singapore over the next four years to expand cloud computing capabilities in the city.
Running services
The facility, which was announced on Thursday, will be located in a corporate complex west of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The facility will operate popular Google digital services such as Search, Maps and Workspace.
The statement stated that upon operation, Malaysia will join 11 countries where Google has established and currently operates data centers to serve users around the world.
She added that the Google Cloud Region “will provide high-performance, low-latency cloud infrastructure, analytics, and artificial intelligence services for large enterprises, startups, and public sector organizations.”
Malaysia has been a major player in the semiconductor industry for decades, representing an estimated 13% of global manufacturing volume, according to German technology giant Bosch.
Studies conducted by global consulting firm Kearney showed that the share of artificial intelligence in Southeast Asia’s GDP is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, and the portion related to Malaysia will be a tenth of that amount.
“Now that many US technology giants have diversified their investment risks away from China, Malaysia, with its traditional involvement in the high-tech sector, is well positioned to welcome their operations,” said Oh Ee Soon, an analyst at the Pacific Research Center in Malaysia.
