Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has adopted a neutral and inclusive approach to ensure its industries benefit from the latest technologies, particularly AI chips from major economies such as the United States and China, says Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
The Investment, Trade and Industry Minister said the government’s main objective is to ensure that companies and industries based in Malaysia have controlled, competitive and secure access to global AI chips and platforms, while maintaining national data sovereignty and security standards.
“The government continues to engage with global technology firms and major trading partners to strengthen market access and facilitate technology transfer,” he said in a written reply to Syerleena Abdul Rashid (PH-Bukit Bendera).
Syerleena had asked the ministry to state its strategy to ensure companies and industries are able to use artificial intelligence (AI) chips originating from the US (such as Nvidia) and China (such as Huawei Ascend).
Citing an example, Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia and the US signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on Resilient Semiconductor Supply Chains in 2022, which remains in effect until 2026.
“The government will leverage this cooperation to ensure the resilience of Malaysia’s domestic semiconductor supply chain.”
He said the government is also implementing layered regulatory and technical approaches to assess product security before deployment in critical systems.
“This includes approval mechanisms and risk assessments conducted by national cybersecurity agencies,” he added.
The government, he said, is also enhancing data centre capabilities, high-performance networks, and the development of research and development and integrated circuit design capacities.
“In line with this, Malaysia has introduced the Silicon Vision, focusing on the development of locally-made AI chips,” he said.
