Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. is considering an investment project worth 50 billion dollars in Malaysia, which will likely target AI technologies and data centers.
SoftBank Group has already announced plans to conduct large-scale investments in the United States and Europe. Now, the company aims to accelerate investment in Asia as well.
According to a statement released by Malaysia's Prime Minister's Department, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim discussed the investment with SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son through a video call on Oct. 20.
Son told Anwar that he had chosen the eastern state of Sarawak, its capital Kuching and the Malay Peninsula as areas where SoftBank Group plans to invest. Anwar expressed his hope that job opportunities will increase in the areas. It remains unclear how much of the 50 billion dollars SoftBank Group will actually invest or how it plans to raise the funds.
On Oct. 8, SoftBank Group announced it had signed a framework agreement with Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros), a state-owned company in Sarawak, and Grab Holdings Ltd., a Singaporean ride-sharing company, to collaborate on developing AI infrastructure in Sarawak.
In the United States, the Japanese conglomerate is advancing the Stargate Project--an AI infrastructure investment plan worth 500 billion dollars--alongside companies including OpenAI.
In France, SoftBank Group plans to invest up to 75 billion euros to develop an AI data center.
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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.
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