Google has committed to investing $2 billion in Malaysia, opening its first data center and “cloud region” in the Southeast Asian country. This significant investment aims to bring the transformative power of AI to businesses, educators and citizens across Malaysia.

Google Malaysia country director Farhan S Qureshi highlighted that the data center will support services such as Google Search and Google Maps, while the cloud region will provide high-performance, low-latency cloud services with best-in-class security and compliance standards for enterprises . Startups and public sector organizations.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim emphasized that this investment would contribute $3.2 billion to the Malaysian economy and create 26,500 jobs by 2030. Anwar said the investment underscores the government’s strategic planning and Malaysia’s economic attractiveness for investors.

This announcement follows Microsoft’s recent announcement of investing $2.2 billion in AI and cloud computing in Malaysia, reflecting increasing interest in Southeast Asia from US tech giants. With a young, tech-savvy population of 670 million people and a fast-growing economy, AI is expected to contribute nearly $1 trillion to GDP by 2030, according to estimates from global consulting firm Kearney.