Google plans $2B investment for datacenter and cloud buildout in Malaysia

Google has unveiled plans to speculate $2 billion in Malaysia, the place it’s trying to construct its first information middle and drive native capabilities in synthetic intelligence (AI).

The brand new website will function a cloud area and help Google’s digital companies, together with Maps, Workspace, and Search, the corporate mentioned in a press release on Thursday. It additionally will energy AI companies that the cloud vendor is trying to drive within the nation.

To be situated in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, the information middle might be in one among 11 nations the place Google runs such a facility, together with Singapore, Indonesia, and South Korea. The seller at the moment operates 40 cloud areas and 121 zones worldwide. 

When operational, the brand new information middle will run alongside Google’s devoted cloud interconnection websites in Cyberjaya and Kuala Lumpur. It additionally marks the seller’s largest funding thus far in Malaysia, the place it has operated for the previous 13 years, in accordance with Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat. 

“[In particular], the Google information middle and cloud area…will empower our manufacturing and service-based industries to leverage AI and different superior applied sciences to maneuver up the worldwide worth chain,” Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz mentioned in a press release.

In March, Google launched applications to coach Malaysian youth in AI-focused abilities, working with the Ministry of Greater Training to supply 161 institutes of upper studying with 500 Google Profession Certificates scholarships every. It additionally supplied Google Workspace instruments to 445,000 public officers.

The US firm added that it had launched two applications to spice up AI literacy amongst native college students and educators, together with the Gemini Academy, which goals to assist educators use generative AI instruments, corresponding to Gemini, responsibly. Greater than 600 educators have participated on this program since its pilot final November, which now has expanded to incorporate extra academic establishments. Google is concentrating on for 15,000 educators to undergo this system by yr’s finish. 

Google has additionally been offering on-site AI coaching and supplies to college students aged 11 to 14. Launched in April, that program goals to coach an preliminary goal of 1,000 educators and, in flip, attain 10,000 college students throughout Malaysia, Google mentioned.