SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has identified locations in Malaysia for a proposed US$50 billion investment in AI, emerging technologies and data centres, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar described the proposal as potentially one of the region’s largest investments, as reported by Bloomberg.
Speaking in Melaka on Saturday (24 October), Anwar said Son had identified Kuching in Sarawak and locations in Peninsular Malaysia during a videoconference the previous week.
“In what areas? AI, new technology and data centres,”
Anwar said.
The investment would expand SoftBank’s presence in Southeast Asia, where countries are attracting growing interest in AI infrastructure development.
Malaysia has already seen significant data centre investments. In June, Alibaba Cloud opened two data centres in Johor, bringing its total number of facilities in the country to five.
Beyond Southeast Asia, SoftBank is involved in a US$500 billion data centre-focused project in Ohio, US, which Bloomberg described as among the world’s largest.
The group is also pursuing a project in France that could cost up to US$84 billion.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Malaysia, based on image by mrsiraphol via Magnific
