(Photo : www.oracle.com)

• Oracle Corporation plans to invest over $6.5 billion to establish its first public cloud region in Malaysia.
• This move will allow Oracle's Malaysian customers to use cloud services based in the country.
• The cloud region in Malaysia will be Oracle's third in Southeast Asia, indicating rising demand for its cloud services.
• Oracle's investment is part of a larger trend of tech giants investing heavily in Southeast Asia, transforming it into a hub for digital infrastructure.

Oracle Corporation, a global technology giant, has announced a significant investment plan to establish its first public cloud region in Malaysia. The company plans to invest over $6.5 billion, marking one of the largest single tech investments in the country. This move is set to outpace the $6.2 billion planned spending by Amazon's cloud unit AWS announced last year.

The planned public cloud region will serve as a catalyst for organizations in Malaysia to modernize their applications, migrate their workload to the cloud, and innovate with data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). This move will allow Oracle's Malaysian customers, which include government agencies, financial institutions, and airline and hospitality companies, to use cloud services based in the country, rather than those based externally.

Garrett Ilg, Oracle's Executive Vice President for Japan and Asia Pacific, emphasized the significance of this investment for their customers. Those customers look to Oracle to support their innovation ... to move into standardized processes to be faster, to be more controlled and be more cost-effective, Ilg told Reuters in an interview.

Oracle's Expansion in Southeast Asia

The cloud region in Malaysia will be Oracle's third in Southeast Asia, following its two existing facilities in Singapore. The company currently boasts 50 public cloud regions across 24 countries, according to its website. This expansion is in line with Oracle's growth trajectory, as the company raised its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast last month and expects to cross $100 billion in revenue in fiscal 2029, indicating rising demand for its cloud services.

Oracle's investment in Malaysia is part of a broader trend of global tech giants pouring billions of dollars into the Southeast Asian country. Companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet unit Google, and China's ByteDance have announced significant digital investments into Malaysia since last year, mostly in cloud services and data centers. This infrastructure boom is driven by growing demand for AI, with Malaysia serving as a regional gateway for cloud infrastructure and supporting the growth of the regional AI ecosystem.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim welcomed Oracle's announcement, stating that it reflects the confidence and commitment of global technology companies in Malaysia's potential. The clarity of policies and strategic cooperation approach implemented by the MADANI Government has successfully attracted investment from the world's leading technology companies such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and most recently, Oracle, he said.

Southeast Asia: A New Hub for Digital Infrastructure

The Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of local workforce and companies seizing the best opportunities from these investments. In a series of discussions with investors, including the top management of these companies, I emphasized the importance of expanding long-term benefits to Malaysia, including the development of centers of excellence, AI faculty and the empowerment of community groups, he added.

Oracle's investment in Malaysia is not an isolated event but part of a larger trend of tech giants investing heavily in Southeast Asia. In the past year, Microsoft announced cloud services investments worth $1.7 billion in Indonesia, while Amazon announced plans to invest $9 billion in Singapore and $5 billion in Thailand. Google also recently broke ground on a $2 billion data center in Malaysia, which it said would contribute more than $3 billion to the country's economy by 2030.

These investments are transforming Southeast Asia into a new Mecca for data centers and cloud services. The region's robust infrastructure, access to fiber, talented local workforce, and favorable business environment have made it an attractive destination for large corporations. As of Q4 2017, Singapore's co-location data center market comprised 33 data center providers, 42 unique operational data centers, and 2.6 million sq ft of data center space, generating approximately $934 million of collocation services revenue.