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Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Microsoft launches first cloud region in Malaysia, AI innovation centre as part of US$2.2b investment
KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Microsoft today launched its first cloud region in Malaysia — the Malaysia West Cloud Region — as part of its US$2.2 billion (RM9.3 billion) investment in the country. Announcing the initiative at the Microsoft AI Tour Kuala Lumpur, Microsoft Cloud + AI Group executive vice president Scott Guthrie said the new cloud region will feature three AI-ready availability zones located in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area. 'With the launch of the Malaysia West Cloud Region, we are providing a critical digital foundation for Malaysia to become a regional AI hub, enabling secure, scalable innovation aligned to national goals. 'We're building here not just because there's demand but because there's vision and leadership at the government and industry levels. Local creativity also gives us the confidence to invest not just in infrastructure but in long-term innovation,' Guthrie said during his keynote address at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) today. A Microsoft cloud region typically comprises hubs of data centres hosting the company's cloud services, such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365/Power Platform. Availability zones have independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. If one zone experiences an outage, regional services, capacity, and high availability are supported by the remaining zones. The Malaysia West Cloud Region will also connect to Microsoft's global wide area network (WAN), providing high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity to other Microsoft cloud regions worldwide. Apart from the cloud region, Microsoft's US$2.2 billion investment — the company's single largest in Malaysia, as announced by its chairman and CEO Satya Nadella last year — includes establishing the Microsoft National AI Innovation Centre. Microsoft Malaysia managing director Laurence Si said the centre, part of the Bina AI Malaysia initiative, is a collaboration with Malaysia's National AI Office (NAIO) under the Digital Ministry and the Petronas Leadership Centre. Si noted that Microsoft, together with the NAIO, has so far trained 400,000 Malaysians under the AI for Malaysia's Future (AIForMYFuture) initiative. Launched in December 2024, the initiative aims to equip 800,000 Malaysians with AI-related skills by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo expressed confidence that Microsoft's latest initiatives will solidify Malaysia's position as a regional leader in the digital and AI economy. 'The government has set the stage by developing a world-class, trusted digital environment for businesses to thrive through robust legal and regulatory frameworks, such as the recent amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act, the enactment of Malaysia's first cybersecurity act, and alignment with Microsoft's trusted cloud principles,' he said in a recorded speech.
The National
3 days ago
- Business
- The National
UAE: ChatGPT Plus on the horizon for all?
Negotiations are under way between the UAE and OpenAI that may make the company's ChatGPT Plus artificial intelligence chatbot available to all residents free of charge, though a final deal has not been reached. An agreement involving ChatGPT Plus would be part of the recently announced Stargate UAE infrastructure plan to create an AI hub in Abu Dhabi, according to a source familiar with the country's AI strategy. Abu Dhabi's AI company G42 has partnered with OpenAI, Oracle and Nvidia to set up Stargate UAE, a 1-gigawatt computing cluster that will operate in the newly established 5GW UAE – US AI Campus. The establishment of the 5GW campus came after months of intense negotiations involving US technology companies and UAE officials to make sure the Emirates has enough chips and graphics processing units for its AI aspirations. If a deal guaranteeing access to ChatGPT Plus to UAE residents comes to fruition, it would be unprecedented in the relatively young AI sector, giving perhaps more than 10 million people in the country the ability to use one of the world's most powerful AI services. OpenAI declined to comment on the prospect of the service being made freely available in the Emirates when contacted by The National. Typically for $20 per month, the ChatGPT Plus subscription plan provides what OpenAI describes as 'enhanced access'. Unlike the ChatGPT version that is free of charge, the subscription service gives priority access during peak usage times, accepts large file uploads for analysis, has wider image generation features, provides access to OpenAI's Deep Research tools and includes expanded voice features. But ChatGPT Plus is not the highest tier service offered by OpenAI. There is also OpenAI Pro, which is available to customers for $200 a month, and the company also offers enterprise plans. Although AI research stretches back to the 1960s, recent advances in computer-processing power, coupled with iterations of AI solutions such as ChatGPT in 2022, led to an explosion of interest, investment and start-ups. In March, OpenAI's introduction of a new image-generating feature created so much interest in ChatGPT that its GPUs started melting. 'The ChatGPT launch 26 months ago was one of the craziest viral moments I'd ever seen, and we added one million users in five days,' OpenAI chief executive and founder Sam Altman wrote at the time. 'We added one million users in the last hour.' Last week, Mr Altman announced that former Apple design master Jony Ive, who played a leading role in the creation of the iMac, iPod and iPhone, will be merging his company io with OpenAI. The UAE is aiming to become a front-runner in the AI industry as it diversifies its economy away from oil. Its efforts have resulted in the establishment of numerous start-ups and partnerships as well as investments from industry leaders. In April, Abu Dhabi's G42 received a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft, which will help to strengthen the UAE's position as a global technology hub. In 2019, the country announced the foundation of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world's first dedicated AI institution of higher learning. In recent years, UAE-based companies and institutions have also created several large language models, which are viewed as the backbone of AI implementations.
