Published : 12 Nov 2026, 03:52 PM
Updated : 12 Nov 2026, 03:52 PM
Malaysia is considering a law that will allow the government to monitor data centre operations, including their use of high-performance chips, the trade minister said on Thursday.
The Southeast Asian country is facing renewed scrutiny over whether it is being used by companies to circumvent US restrictions on advanced artificial intelligence chips. The scrutiny follows a scandal involving Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Jensen Huang and his alleged ties to a suspected Chinese spy.
Malaysia imposed export controls last year on the movement of US-origin high-performance AI chips, following pressure from Washington to stem their flow to China.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said Malaysia was seeking to collect information on companies planning to build data centres in the country. Applicants would be expected to disclose the facilities' operators and locations, as well as the number of graphics processing units (GPUs) being brought into the country.
Speaking at a ministry event on Thursday, Johari said the information would help the government monitor the use of such chips.
At a later press conference, he said Malaysia needed to ensure that chips subject to US restrictions were imported for domestic use rather than re-exported.
"If they want to use this country to trade something that is defined as an illegal transaction, we need to make sure that it will not happen in this country," he said.
Johari said the government had no plans to open investigations into Speedmatrix, a Malaysian unit of Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed, following allegations that it may have been used to channel Nvidia chips to Chinese users.
"If... they buy the GPUs for their own use in the data centres, then I cannot see what law that we need to use (to investigate them)," he said.
Megaspeed said in a statement on its website dated Thursday that it took its compliance obligations under US export control laws extremely seriously and was committed to working constructively with the US government.
"Megaspeed welcomes appropriate government scrutiny and is committed to demonstrating through concrete actions that it operates responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with applicable US laws," its Chairman and Chief Executive James Tan Yong Pong said.
