SoftBank weighs $50 billion AI bet on Malaysia, Anwar says

SoftBank has been pledging large sums to AI infrastructure worldwide. In March it said it would channel $500 billion into a single AI data center campus in Piketon, Ohio, expecting to share the cost with tenants. A few months later it committed 45 billion euros ($50.3 billion) to AI data centers in northern France. The Malaysia discussion, if completed, would be smaller than those but still dwarf what other companies have promised the country.

The Oct. 8 framework with Grab Holdings and Petroleum Sarawak, the Sarawak government's energy company, set out to explore an AI and digital infrastructure platform in Sarawak—the same state Anwar said Son chose. That suggests the talks are building on an existing structure rather than starting from scratch, though the body does not say how the two are linked.

Anwar has been trying to highlight Malaysia as a neutral and non-aligned home for investment. Malaysia announced its AI Malaysia initiative in July, aiming to become an "AI nation" by 2030, and the government hopes to climb the semiconductor value chain from assembly and testing toward advanced packaging and chip design. The investment could hand a win to Anwar, who took office in 2022 and remains Malaysia's most popular senior politician with a 52% approval rating, according to a Merdeka Center poll. Malaysia must hold elections no later than February 2028; Anwar was considering snap elections in the second half of 2026 but is now reportedly looking to push them to the second half of 2027, following some losses in state elections and instability in his governing coalition.