Oracle has unveiled plans to invest US$6.5 billion (RM27 billion) in setting up its first public cloud region in Malaysia, making it one of the most significant tech investments in the country. This marks the latest major digital infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia, following a trend of global technology giants increasing their presence in the region.
This investment follows similar moves by Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, and ByteDance, as Malaysia sees an influx of cloud services and data centre expansions. Amazon Web Services (AWS), for example, announced a US$6.2 billion investment into Malaysia last year, but Oracle’s new venture will surpass that figure.
A cloud region refers to a geographic location where a company’s public cloud infrastructure is hosted. The Oracle Malaysia cloud region will enable organisations to modernise their operations, migrate workloads to the cloud, and harness data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) more efficiently.
According to Garrett Ilg, Oracle’s executive vice president for Japan and Asia Pacific, Malaysian government agencies, financial institutions, airlines, and hospitality companies will benefit from these cloud services. The establishment of this facility will allow these entities to access Oracle’s cloud services locally, reducing the need to rely on external regions.
“Those customers look to Oracle to support their innovation, move into standardised processes, and be faster, more controlled, and cost-effective,” Ilg told Reuters.
Expanding Oracle’s Cloud Presence in Southeast Asia
This will be Oracle’s third cloud region in Southeast Asia, adding to its existing two in Singapore. Currently, the company operates 50 public cloud regions in 24 countries globally.
With the increasing demand for cloud services, Oracle has set ambitious revenue goals. Last month, the company raised its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast and expects to surpass US$100 billion in revenue by fiscal 2029, driven by rising demand for its cloud solutions.
Beyond Malaysia, Oracle plans to continue expanding across Asia, including more data centres and infrastructure projects spanning from Japan to New Zealand and India.
Competitive Cloud Investment Landscape in Southeast Asia
In addition to Oracle, several other tech giants have been expanding their cloud services across Southeast Asia. For instance:
- Microsoft has committed US$1.7 billion in cloud investments in Indonesia.
- Amazon plans to invest US$9 billion in Singapore and US$5 billion in Thailand.
- Google recently broke ground on a US$2 billion data centre in Malaysia, part of investments expected to contribute over US$3 billion to the country’s economy by 2030.
According to Chris Chelliah, Oracle’s senior vice president for technology and customer strategy in Japan and Asia Pacific, Malaysia’s growing digital infrastructure presents opportunities for further expansion in AI and cloud technologies. He sees Malaysia as a key market in Southeast Asia’s broader AI and data centre development.
Oracle’s significant investment underscores Malaysia’s appeal as a regional hub for digital infrastructure, paving the way for more innovations in cloud services and technology-driven growth across the country.
