< Back to insights

Oracle’s $6.5 Billion Investment in Malaysia: A Step Toward AI and Cloud Dominance

October 7, 2024

Oracle's recent decision to invest over $6.5 billion in Malaysia marks a significant move in the global tech landscape. This investment aims to strengthen Malaysia's cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, supporting the country's ambition to become a major data center hub in the Asia-Pacific region.

Overview of Oracle’s Investment

Oracle's commitment to developing a cloud region in Malaysia includes a comprehensive suite of cloud services. With more than 150 infrastructure and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, this initiative seeks to empower Malaysian businesses, modernize applications, and facilitate the migration of mission-critical workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The investment aligns with Malaysia's New Industrial Master Plan, which aims to establish 3,000 smart factories by 2030.

Oracle's cloud region will provide Malaysian businesses access to advanced AI services, including the OCI Generative AI Agents equipped with retrieval-augmented generation capabilities. OCI's offerings include the Oracle Supercluster, one of the largest AI supercomputers in the cloud. This supercomputer will use up to 131,072 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, underscoring Oracle's commitment to leading in AI capabilities.

Strategic Importance of the Investment

Oracle’s investment in Malaysia carries several strategic benefits. First, it positions Malaysia as a growing digital and data center hub in Southeast Asia. With Singapore imposing restrictions on new data center developments, Malaysia's attractiveness for tech investments continues to rise. Oracle's investment will support Malaysia's ambitions to develop a robust digital economy, benefiting especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing access to cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies.

The new cloud region will also allow organizations in Malaysia to maintain control over their data, which is crucial for data residency compliance. Ensuring data remains within local borders can be a critical factor for companies working within specific legal frameworks.

Statements from Key Officials

The investment has received strong support from Malaysian officials, further cementing the partnership between Oracle and the Malaysian government. YB Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, has welcomed the investment as a reflection of the country's readiness for digital infrastructure and its potential as a prime location for tech investments. Garrett Ilg, Oracle's Executive Vice President for Japan and Asia Pacific, emphasized Oracle's dedication to positioning Malaysia as a regional gateway for cloud infrastructure and services.

Oracle’s Data Center Infrastructure and AI Goals

Oracle’s data center infrastructure is central to its AI capabilities. The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Supercluster, equipped to scale up to 131,072 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, is designed to handle some of the most demanding AI applications. It boasts a performance capability of 2.4 zettaFLOPS at peak, making it one of the largest AI supercomputers in the cloud. In addition, Oracle's infrastructure offers a distributed cloud model, allowing businesses to deploy services across public cloud, on-premises, or edge environments, addressing needs related to data sovereignty, performance, and security.

Oracle's infrastructure further includes advanced networking with NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NICs and liquid cooling solutions for low-latency AI workloads. Storage solutions also cater to high-capacity needs, with up to 61.44 TB of local capacity available for instances equipped with NVIDIA H100 GPUs.

Oracle’s AI Strategy

Oracle’s investment in Malaysia highlights its broader AI goals, which focus on integrating AI capabilities into business operations and enhancing customer experiences. By embedding generative AI functionalities within its services, Oracle aims to help organizations automate business processes, optimize decision-making, and improve customer engagement.

Oracle’s AI ambitions include the deployment of generative AI agents, which use large language models combined with enterprise data for enhanced querying and data retrieval. This integration intends to improve productivity and streamline business operations by making AI tools accessible to companies across various industries.

Key Objectives for Integrating AI

  1. Empowering Businesses: Oracle seeks to equip organizations with tools to integrate AI seamlessly into their operations. With its generative AI agents and other AI services, Oracle plans to boost business automation and decision-making across sectors such as healthcare, finance, and retail.
  2. Infrastructure Optimization: Oracle's infrastructure aims to meet the demands of generative AI and predictive analytics with high performance and scalability, supporting deep learning and AI model deployment at scale.
  3. Data Security and Privacy: Oracle emphasizes data privacy by keeping customer data separate from generative AI models. This approach allows businesses to train AI models using proprietary data without risking data intermingling, fostering trust with clients.
  4. Deployment Flexibility: Oracle’s distributed cloud capabilities enable organizations to deploy AI services in various environments, whether in public clouds, on-premises, or at the edge. This flexibility is vital for businesses that have specific performance, security, and regulatory requirements.
  5. Customizable AI Models: Oracle collaborates with companies like Cohere to create customizable AI models tailored to unique business needs. This allows companies to utilize their data to generate relevant and accurate AI outputs.
  6. Comprehensive AI Services: Oracle offers a broad range of AI services, from prebuilt machine learning models to tools for creating custom models. These services help organizations integrate AI into their applications quickly and efficiently.

Industries Benefiting from Oracle’s Generative AI Services

Oracle's generative AI services have applications across various sectors, enhancing operational efficiency, decision-making, and customer engagement. Here are some of the industries that stand to benefit significantly from these services:

  • Healthcare: Oracle’s AI capabilities can help healthcare providers manage electronic health records (EHRs) more efficiently. Oracle Cerner, for instance, facilitates automated generation of discharge summaries and insurance authorization letters, reducing administrative workload and improving patient care.
  • Finance and Banking: AI can help automate complex tasks, such as generating financial reports, detecting anomalies, and enhancing risk management. Oracle Fusion Applications integrate AI to help financial institutions make better decisions while ensuring data privacy and security.
  • Retail: Retailers can leverage AI to offer personalized customer experiences, manage inventories, and forecast sales trends. AI-driven insights can assist in identifying target customers and optimizing marketing strategies, leading to better customer engagement and operational efficiencies.
  • Supply Chain and Manufacturing: Oracle’s AI services streamline procurement processes, generate product descriptions, and facilitate supplier negotiations, all of which improve supply chain transparency and reduce costs.
  • Human Resources: AI can simplify recruitment by creating job descriptions, matching candidates, and automating surveys, ultimately making hiring more efficient and effective for HR departments.
  • Marketing and Customer Experience: By incorporating AI into marketing tools, businesses can automate content creation, summarize customer interactions, and provide personalized recommendations. These capabilities enhance customer satisfaction and streamline marketing efforts.

Partner with Vertical Data to Accelerate Your AI and Cloud Journey

As Malaysia positions itself as a major hub for cloud and AI infrastructure, businesses need the right partners to take advantage of these advancements. Vertical Data provides data center infrastructure solutions that streamline your journey into next-generation technology. From sourcing hard-to-find hardware to managing high-density colocation and deploying GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), Vertical Data stands out as a leader in technology infrastructure solutions.

Our expertise across the AI value chain means we are prepared to meet the demands of Oracle’s expanding cloud and AI capabilities. We specialize in everything from hardware procurement to turn-key GPU services, and we simplify the acquisition and deployment process, so you can focus on growth. Whether you’re looking for custom hardware solutions, high-density data center capabilities, or full GPUaaS deployment, Vertical Data can power your infrastructure efficiently.

Schedule a Call Today to Explore Your Options with Vertical Data

Connect with Vertical Data today and discover how our solutions can support your business through every stage of deployment. We’ll work with you to accelerate your entry into this competitive market, optimize your infrastructure, and prepare for the next wave of technology. Contact us to schedule a call and take the next step in advancing your AI and cloud capabilities.