Masayoshi plans Malaysia outlay

Softbank Group Corp chief executive officer Masayoshi Son chose locations in Malaysia for US$50 billion in technology investments, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, an outlay that would accelerate the billionaire’s global bet on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Anwar said he had a videoconference with Son on Tuesday, during which the Japanese tech investor said he had picked regions in the Southeast Asian country for projects including data centers.

“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 US$50 billion,” Anwar said in a speech in Malacca on Saturday. “In what areas? Artificial intelligence, new technology and data centers.”

Softbank Group chairman and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son speaks at Softbank World in Tokyo on July 14.

Photo: Reuters

A push in Malaysia would expand Son’s reach in Southeast Asia, a region which is emerging as a key hub for AI infrastructure such as data centers. Softbank is already working on a US$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 75 billion euros (US$84 billion). In Japan, the company’s telecom unit is building data centers in Hokkaido and in Sakai, Osaka.

Malaysia has emerged as a major destination for the data centers, attracting investments from companies including Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google. The country recorded 385.7 billion ringgit (US$94 billion) of data-center-related investments from 2021 through the first half of this year, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority said.

The government is seeking to wring more economic value from the boom, pushing data-center operators to support local suppliers while using the infrastructure to spur AI adoption, home-grown innovation and higher-skilled jobs. Malaysia has set a goal of becoming an “AI nation” by 2030.