Google announced on Thursday that the corporate will invest $2 billion in Malaysia, with a part of the funds going towards constructing the country's first data center and cloud region as demand for AI and cloud services increases.
“This investment builds on our partnership with the Malaysian government to advance their 'Cloud First Policy,' including world-class cybersecurity standards,” said Ruth Porat, president, CFO and CIO at Alphabet and Google, in an announcement.
Porat added that this will probably be Google's largest investment in Malaysia in its 13 years of existence.
The data center will power Google's digital services reminiscent of Search, Maps and Workspace, while the cloud region will provide services to businesses and organizations in the private and non-private sectors. Google has also launched two AI training programs for college kids and teachers within the country.
These investments and programs are expected to contribute greater than US$3.2 billion to Malaysia's GDP and support 26,500 jobs by 2030.
The Malaysia cloud region is the most recent addition to Google's network of 40 regions and 121 zones worldwide, the US technology giant said.
This comes after Microsoft said earlier this month that it might Invest $2.2 billion in Malaysia to drive latest cloud and AI infrastructures. Investments in Indonesia and Thailand were also announced for this yr.
Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have committed billions of dollars to Southeast Asia to capitalize on rising demand for AI and cloud computing services.
The AI boom has increased the demand for cloud computing services and data centers because large amounts of knowledge are required to coach AI models and the cloud provides access to massive data sets. Data centers are facilities that contain servers and other infrastructure needed to store data and run applications or services.
“Google’s $2 billion investment in Malaysia will boost our New Industrial Master Plan 2030“, said YB Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry, in a press release.
The minister added that Google's investment will enable the manufacturing and services industries to make use of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to “move up the global chain.”
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