“RED CARPET”
Malaysian Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the collaboration would enable Malaysia and Arm “to build a complete supply chain in advanced industries such as AI (artificial intelligence) data servers, autonomous vehicles, IoT (internet of things), robotics and others”.
He said that around 10,000 local semiconductor engineers would be trained under the deal.
Dedi Iskandar, Asia Pacific regional director at datacenterHawk, said the agreement would make Malaysia “as one of the elite countries in Asia Pacific that possess advanced AI chip design capabilities other than Taiwan and Singapore.”
“Malaysia is laying the red carpet and showing the world that they are serious in this tech war,” he told AFP.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing over advanced tech, especially semiconductors, in recent years have forced many firms to look into relocating their manufacturing from China to other countries including Malaysia, Vietnam and India.
“This deal creates equilibrium to the region as Taiwan is always a sore thumb between China and US tech war, and Malaysia are friends to both of them,” added Dedi.
A prominent player in the industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 per cent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech firm Bosch.
Malaysia’s northern island of Penang, home to a number of facilities, is often dubbed the country’s Silicon Valley.
And in April 2024, Anwar announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, an effort to move Malaysia beyond chips production.
