Oracle Corp. plans to spend US$6.5 billion building a cloud services centre in Malaysia, becoming the latest global tech name to invest in Southeast Asian artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The US company will establish a cloud region in the country, essentially a network of data centres that provide services to corporate clients. That includes access to Nvidia Corp. chips that can be used to accelerate generative AI development, it said in a statement.
Oracle’s pledge marks the latest major outlay by a major US tech company in Southeast Asia, which is fast becoming a centre for cloud services because of ample land, government support and rapidly growing markets.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google said Monday it aims to invest US$1 billion to build data centres in Thailand — on top of similar projects for Malaysia — while Amazon.com Inc. unveiled its own US$9 billion investment plan in Singapore in May. Microsoft Corp. has also talked about spending some US$4 billion building data centres and other infrastructure for the region.
Oracle, which is trying to expand its cloud infrastructure business globally to vie for a slice of the AI pie, didn’t offer timeframes or specifics on what it intended to build in Malaysia. The global market for AI-related products could hit US$990 billion by 2027, as the technology’s adoption disrupts companies and economies, Bain & Co. estimates.
