Malaysia's prime minister says Masayoshi Son is putting US$50 billion into AI there. SoftBank hasn't said so yet
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, that SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son told him in a video call on Tuesday that he had chosen Sarawak's capital Kuching and Peninsular Malaysia for about US$50 billion in technology investments, covering artificial intelligence, new technology and data centers.
US$50 billion is a headline number, and right now it's the prime minister's headline, not SoftBank's. That gap matters: Son is famous for announcing giant numbers on stage and letting the financing catch up later, and SoftBank has said nothing about timing, sites or who actually pays. Still, it fits a real pattern. Southeast Asia is turning into the overflow lot for AI compute, Malaysia has already pulled in roughly US$94 billion of data-center money, and Son is spreading his bets from Ohio to France to Kuching. What to watch: whether SoftBank puts this in writing, how much is SoftBank's own cash versus partners and project finance, and whether Malaysia's grid and water can keep up with another wave of servers.
Speaking in Melaka on Saturday, Oct. 24, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he held a video conference with SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son on Tuesday, Oct. 20. In that call, Anwar said, Son told him he had picked regions of Malaysia for projects including data centers. Those lines are Anwar's, as Bloomberg and Nikkei reported the speech.
Anwar said: "He said he had chosen Sarawak – Kuching – and peninsular Malaysia to expand investment in what would be among the largest investments in the region, worth US$50 billion." Asked which areas, he answered: "Artificial intelligence, new technology and data centres." Sarawak is a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. Kuching is its capital. Peninsular Malaysia is the part of the country on the Asian mainland. A data center is a building full of servers. Those quotations are Anwar's.
SoftBank did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment. SoftBank has not announced a timeline, a project list, site details, or a funding structure. The US$50 billion figure is the prime minister's account of the call.
Earlier in October, SoftBank said it signed framework agreements with partners to explore AI infrastructure and ecosystem development in Sarawak. A framework agreement is a plan to study projects together. It is not a check for US$50 billion. That line is SoftBank's, reported with the speech.
SoftBank is already working on a US$500 billion data-center-focused project in Ohio, and a project in France that could cost as much as €75 billion, about US$84 billion. Its telecom unit is building data centers in Hokkaido and in Sakai, Osaka. Those are other SoftBank projects, reported alongside the Malaysia remarks.
Malaysia recorded 385.7 billion ringgit, about US$94 billion, in data-center-related investment from 2021 through the first half of 2026, according to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority. The ringgit is Malaysia's currency. Companies in that total include Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. The government wants Malaysia to be an "AI nation" by 2030, and it is pushing data-center operators to support local suppliers. Those figures and the policy line are the authority's and the government's, as reported with the speech.
Anwar said the investment would create better jobs, especially for younger workers. He tied Malaysia's ability to attract investment to political stability. Those lines are his.
The picture is a portrait of SoftBank Group chairman and chief executive Masayoshi Son, taken at SoftBank headquarters in Tokyo in May 2025. The credit is European Communities, 2025, via the EC Audiovisual Service.
In plain terms, Malaysia's prime minister said on Saturday that Masayoshi Son told him, on a Tuesday video call, that he had picked Kuching and Peninsular Malaysia for about US$50 billion in artificial intelligence, new technology, and data centers. SoftBank has not confirmed the number, the sites, the timing, or who pays. Earlier this month SoftBank did say it signed framework agreements to explore AI infrastructure in Sarawak.