US restrictions to impact Malaysia’s AI data centre development, won’t affect broader ecosystem — Chin Tong

• Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong said Malaysia, along with Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, was classified under the Tier 2 category, granting these countries limited and controlled access to the exports of advanced AI technology.

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 19): Malaysia is expected to face challenges in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres due to the recent restrictions by the United States (US) on AI chip exports, said Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong. (pictured)

However, he said the restrictions would not affect the development of the domestic data centre ecosystem as a whole.

Liew said Malaysia, along with Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, was classified under the Tier 2 category, granting these countries limited and controlled access to the exports of advanced AI technology.

“However, this restriction will not affect the operations of other data centres, such as those that provide transaction, e-commerce and data storage services, as they do not use AI chips or advanced AI technology,” he said during the question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

He was responding to a question from Pang Hok Liong (PH-Labis) about the impact of Malaysia's becoming a regional data centre after the latest US directive, which placed Malaysia in the Tier 2 country category regarding the exports of US AI chips.

Meanwhile, Liew said the government plans to open market access for semiconductor products to other countries, including Asean, the Middle East and South America.

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