This marks the technology giant’s largest investment in Malaysia during its 13 years of operations here.

On May 30, Google announced a $2 billion investment in Malaysia. Part of this investment will go towards establishing the country’s first data center and cloud infrastructure to address the growing demand for AI and cloud services.

Ruth Porat, President, CFO, and CIO at Alphabet and Google, stated: “This investment strengthens our collaboration with the Malaysian government to advance a ‘Cloud First Policy’ with top-notch cybersecurity standards.”

Porat further highlighted that this would be Google’s largest investment in Malaysia during its 13-year presence in the country.

According to CNBC, the data center will support Google’s digital services such as Search, Maps, and Workspaces. Meanwhile, the cloud infrastructure will offer services to both public and private sector organizations. Additionally, Google has launched two “AI literacy” programs in Malaysia for students and educators.

Google’s investments and initiatives are projected to contribute over $3.2 billion to Malaysia’s GDP and create 26,500 jobs by 2030. The company mentioned that Malaysia’s cloud infrastructure is the latest addition to Google’s network, spanning 40 regions and 121 territories globally.

This announcement follows Microsoft’s earlier declaration this month of a $2.2 billion investment in Malaysia to develop new cloud and AI infrastructure. Microsoft has also announced investments in Indonesia and Thailand this year.

Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are investing billions in Southeast Asia to capitalize on the rising demand for AI and cloud computing. CEOs from Microsoft, Apple, and NVIDIA have visited various countries in the region to formulate strategic plans and meet with state leaders.

The surge in AI has increased the demand for cloud computing and data center services. Since training AI models requires vast amounts of data, cloud services provide access to these extensive datasets. Data centers are facilities housing servers and other infrastructure essential for data storage and running applications and services.

Microsoft and Google are two major competitors striving to lead in artificial intelligence services, seeking customers for their offerings in this expanding field.

Senator YB Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, commented: “Google’s $2 billion investment in Malaysia will expedite the nation’s digitalization ambitions outlined in our 2030 plan.”

The minister also noted that Google’s investments would enable manufacturing and service industries to harness AI and other advanced technologies to achieve global competitiveness.