PETALING JAYA: The purported move by the United States to restrict shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Malaysia and Thailand is expected to draw mixed reactions among investors, says MIDF Research.
However, the research house has maintained its “positive” stance on the construction and utilities sectors, backed by optimism on the continued pipeline of data centres here.
The research house was referring to a Bloomberg report, citing sources, that US president Donald Trump’s administration was planning to restrict AI chips shipments to Malaysia and Thailand in a move to prevent suspected smuggling into China through intermediaries.
This is part of the draft rule that is meant to replace Joe Biden’s framework of AI diffusion that was rescinded in May. MIDF Research pointed out that the revised rule has yet to be finalised and could still change.
The new export curbs will, however, include measures to help companies with significant business operations in Malaysia and Thailand keep their projects on track.
Among the measures are a grace period for firms headquartered in the United States and “a few dozen friendly nations” to continue shipping AI chips to both countries without a licence for a few months after the rule is published.
Even after the grace period ends, the licence requirements will include certain exemptions to prevent supply chain disruptions.
“We view that this is in line with our opinion back in May when Biden’s AI diffusion rule was rescinded, which is good news for tech giants as they may no longer be tied down to the 7% restriction of AI computing power to any country outside Tier 1, which allows for more AI capacities to be planned in other countries such as Malaysia,” the research house pointed out.
MIDF Research opined that giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, which are crucial names for the hyperscale builds in Malaysia, are not expected to see much hindrance in exporting advanced AI chips to the country.
It said even YTL Power International Bhd
, which has an exclusive partnership with Nvidia, is not expected to be severely impacted for future AI data centre builds.
MIDF Research said it is also plausible that hyperscale operators and major cloud providers may accelerate their data centre builds and rush orders for high-end AI chips now, especially before Trump’s refashioned AI diffusion rule is officially announced, up until before the grace period ends.
