Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group Corp has chosen locations in Malaysia for $50 billion in technology investments, the country’s prime minister says, an outlay that would accelerate the billionaire’s global bet on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, Bloomberg reported.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he had a videoconference with Son last Tuesday, during which the Japanese tech investor said he had picked regions in the country for projects including data centers.
SoftBank representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, Bloomberg added.
“He said he had chosen Sarawak – Kuching – and Peninsular Malaysia to expand investment in what would be among the largest investments in the region, worth $50bil,” Anwar said in a speech in Melaka last Saturday.
“In what areas? AI, new technology and data centers,” he was quote as saying.
According to Bloomberg, SoftBank is already working on a $500 billion data center-focused project in Ohio, among the largest in the world, and a project in France that would cost as much as $84 billion.
Earlier in July this year, S&P Global Ratings said Malaysia can overcome execution challenges to become one of Southeast Asia’s largest data center hubs, nearly tripling capacity by 2030.
Proximity to Singapore, strong connectivity and growing power and water capacity should help Malaysia maintain its competitiveness, despite rising costs and tighter approvals, the rating agency said in its report – “Malaysia’s Data Center Outlook: A Reset For Sustainable Growth.”
“Malaysia is slowing down to get ahead in data centers. The country’s data center sector is in a reset mode–from rapid expansion toward a model that aims for sustainable growth. This will buy the country time as it expands the necessary power and water resources, to sustainably grow into one of Southeast Asia’s largest data center hubs,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Spencer Ng wrote then.