KUALA LUMPUR: The United States (US) restrictions on the export of AI chips will not affect the operations of data centres in Malaysia, says Liew Chin Tong.
The Investment, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister said this was due to measures being implemented under the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS) to mitigate the potential impact of the US restrictions.
“The operations of data centres that provide services for transactions, e-commerce, media, and data storage will not be affected by the restrictions.
“Malaysia may face challenges in developing AI data centres, but this will not disrupt the business ecosystem of these centres,” he said when responding to a question from Pang Hok Liong (PH-Labis) in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (Feb 19).
On Tuesday (Feb 18), Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo informed the House that Malaysia had attracted RM114.7bil in investment for data centre development.
Meanwhile, Liew noted that Malaysia was among several nations likely to be categorised under Tier 2 of the US restrictions.
Countries under Tier 2 are considered low-risk but face controlled access to advanced AI chips.
“Access to advanced AI chip technology will be limited, and its import will be regulated.
“Several other Asean nations are also expected to fall under Tier 2, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam,” he added.
Liew pointed out that the US restrictions on the export of advanced AI chips have yet to be enforced, despite the signing of the Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion under the Biden administration on Jan 13 this year.
“The framework is currently undergoing a public and online engagement process, which will take 120 days,” he said.
As such, Liew said Malaysia will negotiate with the US on the matter.
“We also encourage US-based industry players operating here to engage with the US government and provide their feedback,” he added.
Earlier, Liew informed the House that Malaysia is looking to expand its semiconductor export market to Asean, Africa, South America, and nations under the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
He said this would help reduce over-reliance on the US as the country’s main export market.
