Google’s USD 2 billion investment in Malaysia includes the establishment of its first data center and “cloud region” in the Southeast Asian nation, with projections of creating 26,500 jobs by 2030, as reported by Al Jazeera.Farhan S Qureshi, Google Malaysia’s country director, highlighted that this investment opens up new opportunities across various sectors.
“This investment goes beyond mere infrastructure; it unlocks new opportunities for businesses, educators, and all Malaysians,” Qureshi stated in a blog post on Thursday.
The Google data center will support services like Google Search and Google Maps and aims to bring the transformative potential of AI to users and clients throughout the country.
Additionally, the Google Cloud region will provide high-performance, low-latency cloud services to enterprises, startups, and public sector organizations, with robust controls to maintain top-notch security and compliance standards, including specific data storage needs.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim noted that this investment will inject USD 3.2 billion into Malaysia’s economy and generate 26,500 jobs by 2030, according to Al Jazeera.
“This investment in Google’s inaugural data center in Malaysia and the development of the Google Cloud region underscores the government’s clear strategic planning and the nation’s economic strength and resources, making it an attractive destination for both existing and new investors,” Anwar commented in a shared post on X.
Google’s announcement follows Microsoft’s recent commitment of USD 2.2 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud computing in Malaysia, as per Al Jazeera.
Tech giants from the US are increasingly investing in Southeast Asia, a region with a young, tech-savvy population of 670 million and a rapidly growing economy.
Consulting firm Kearney has projected that AI could contribute close to USD 1 trillion to Southeast Asia’s GDP by 2030.
Moreover, Amazon’s recent announcement of a USD 9 billion investment in Singapore to expand cloud infrastructure follows earlier multibillion-dollar investments in Malaysia and Thailand, as reported by Al Jazeera.