U.S.-based Oracle to invest 6.5 bln USD in AI, cloud computing in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Oracle, a U.S.-based technology company, on Wednesday announced plans to invest more than 6.5 billion U.S. dollars to open a public cloud region in Malaysia to meet the rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services in the country.

Oracle said in a statement that the upcoming cloud region will enable Oracle customers and partners in Malaysia to leverage AI infrastructure and services and migrate mission-critical workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

It said the planned public cloud region will help organizations in Malaysia modernize their applications, migrate all types of workloads to the cloud, and innovate with data, analytics, and AI.

"This investment will empower Malaysian entities, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, with innovative and cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies to enhance their global competitiveness," Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, minister of investment, trade and industry said.

It is also a significant step towards realizing Malaysia's New Industrial Master Plan's ambitious vision of creating 3,000 smart factories by 2030, he added.

Garrett Ilg, Oracle executive vice president and general manager (Japan & Asia Pacific), said this investment affirms the firm's commitment to Malaysia as a regional gateway for cloud infrastructure as well as a comprehensive suite of software as a service (SaaS) applications deployed within Malaysia.