Google announced its plan to invest $2 billion in Malaysia for cloud computing services and data centers with a view to meeting the soaring demand for AI and cloud services. It is expected that these investments and programs would contribute more than $3.2 billion to Malaysia’s GDP and support 26,500 jobs by 2030.
The company, which operates in the country for the past 13 years, will build the first data center and cloud region in Greater Kuala Lumpur. In a statement, Alphabet and Google’s president, CFO, and CIO, Ruth Porat, said the investment will be Google’s largest yet in Malaysia.
The data center would power Google’s digital services, including Search, Maps, and Workspace. Further, the cloud region will provide services to companies and organizations in the public and private sectors. The company has also launched two AI literacy programs in the country for students and educators.
Porat said, ‘This investment builds on our partnership with the Government of Malaysia to advance its ‘Cloud First Policy,’ including best-in-class cybersecurity standards.’
Further, YB Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, minister of investment, trade and industry, added that Google’s $2 billion investment in Malaysia will significantly advance the digital ambitions outlined in the country’s New Industrial Master Plan 2030 or NIMP 2030.
‘The Google data center and Google Cloud region in Greater Kuala Lumpur, in particular, will empower our manufacturing and service-based industries to leverage AI and other advanced technologies to move up the global value chain,’ he said.
Google has a network of 40 regions and 121 zones around the world.
Large amounts of data are required to train AI models, and the tech majors are investing billion of dollars in various countries especially in Southeast Asia to expand their data centers amid the rising demand for AI and cloud computing services.
Google’s investment comes on the heels of Microsoft’s announcement earlier this month of an investment of $2.2 billion in Malaysia to advance new cloud and AI infrastructure, along with its investment plans for Indonesia and Thailand.
In November last year, Amazon Web Services or AWS also had pledged $6 billion in Malaysia.
