SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has picked Malaysia for $50bn of investment in AI, new technology and data centres. Prime minister Anwar Ibrahim made the announcement on Saturday.
Anwar said Son told him about the plan during a video call on Tuesday. He spoke in Malacca, at the launch of a national cost of living plan. That is according to the verbatim text his office published in Malay. Bloomberg was first to report the remarks in English.
“He said he had chosen Sarawak, Kuching and the peninsula to expand his investment, among the largest investments in this region, worth $50bn. In what fields? In AI, new technology, data centres,” Anwar said, in TNW’s translation.
SoftBank has not announced the figure. Its press releases since 8 October carry no mention of it.
A framework deal in Sarawak
That day, SoftBank signed a framework agreement in Kuching. Its partners were the ride-hailing group Grab and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS), the state energy company.
The three companies agreed to explore an AI and digital infrastructure platform in Sarawak. They will draw up a roadmap to build it in phases, covering AI compute, robotics and local workforce development. The agreement names no amount. It does not commit the companies to sign final deals or carry out the project.
SoftBank is expected to fund only part of the $50bn. Financing and other partners would cover the rest, Nikkei Asia reported, according to Fortune. TNW has not independently verified that report.
Jobs and political stability
Anwar told the audience, many of them students, that the investment would bring new and better jobs. He tied it to political stability.
“If there is no investment, if people have no confidence in this government, if the leadership keeps quarrelling, people will not be interested in coming,” he said.
In the same speech, Anwar said politics in Malacca was heating up. The state holds elections on 14 November, as Jay Ganglani noted for Fortune.
Anwar also urged better skills in AI, digitalisation and chips. He wants Malaysia to move from back-end work to front-end technology.
Malaysia recorded RM385.7bn of data-centre-related investment from 2021 to mid-2026. That figure comes from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority. In September, OpenAI became the anchor customer for a Firmus site there.
Son has been funding his AI bets with a new $60bn bond and loans secured on its OpenAI stake.
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