Malaysia is positioning itself as a key AI industry player, with multinational tech giants set to establish a physical presence within the next two to five years, supported by the Malaysian Digital Action Plan launched in 2025. On Sept 7, Bloomberg reported that Malaysia drew record US$3.9 billion in bond inflows in August on an AI boom. Over the last three years, Nvidia, Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon signed agreements bringing investment across Johor, Sarawak, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Penang, while Chinese multinationals ByteDance and Ali Baba Group joined the data centre race. According to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida), accumulative FDI inflow reached around RM993.9 billion (US$214 billion) in 2024, rising 9.7% to RM1.09 trillion (US$255 billion) in 2025, with 1Q approved FDI reaching RM92.8 billion (US$23.2 billion). Mida attributes roughly 35.8% (US$91.3 billion) of last year's investment to AI-related projects. Within Asean, Malaysia has narrowed the gap with Singapore and Thailand; Singapore remains the leader but its Energy Market Authority announced in April it would cap newly approved data centre capacity, citing land constraints and a policy to moderate data centre growth.