Tech giant Oracle is making a massive $6.5 billion investment in Malaysia’s cloud services region, joining other US tech titans rushing to build up their AI infrastructure in Southeast Asia. This move highlights Malaysia’s growing prominence as a digital investment hub and its aspirations to become a competitive player in the global AI landscape. Oracle and other tech companies are racing to capitalize on the surging demand for cloud and AI technologies in the region.
Powers Malaysia Digital Transformation
Oracle’s multi-billion ringgit investment on Malaysia’s cloud services region is a strong testament to the potential of the country’s digital capabilities and infrastructure. Oracle will support local organizations to modernize their applications, migrate workloads to the cloud, and leverage data, analytics, and artificial intelligence with the establishment of its third Southeast Asian cloud region in Malaysia.
The venture is in line with Malaysia’s strategy to become the best investment destination for digital from around SEA. Reiterating Tengku Zafrul, the Investment, Trade and Industry Minister of Malaysia has welcomed Oracle by saying that it “reinforces Malaysia’s position as a destination for digital investments within the Southeast Asian region with the support of its well established infrastructure.”
Thrashing the AI and Cloud Fire
Oracle’s actions are consistent with the efforts of other large tech companies to quickly expand their AI and cloud infrastructure across Souteast Asia. The likes of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have all invested heavily in the region— evidence of the high demand for these transformative technologies.
The government of Malaysia as well is actually taking a few proactive measures to ride on this wave Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his administration was in the middle of drafting a National Cloud Policy designed to facilitate public service innovation and efficiency as well as engender user confidence and data protection. Moreover, a National Artificial Intelligence Office will be set up by the government to oversee all AI-related initiatives that place Malaysia as a globally substantive AI player.
Realising the Digital Opportunity in Malaysia
Oracle’s move to invest in Malaysia for its cloud services region has demonstrated the increasing attractiveness of the country itself as a digital hub. With advanced cloud, data and AI technologies, Oracle will enable these organizations to drive innovation in the way they run their businesses and compete more effectively–as well as discover new growth opportunities.
The step is in line with Malaysia’s bigger plans of wanting to be the digital economy leader. While the National Cloud Policy and National Artificial Intelligence Office are steps in right direction towards supporting various policies aimed at enabling State-of-the-Art Digital Data and Infrastructure this would only compliment for a full country scale transformation in digital data space. Sikkander noted that the round also opens a door for more global tech giants to follow suit and invest in Malaysia’s digital infrastructure, further establishing the country as a Southeast Asian digital powerhouse.
