Microsoft to invest $1 bln in Malaysia to set up data centres: Malaysian PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Microsoft Corporation will invest $1 billion over the next five years in Malaysia as part of a new partnership programme with government agencies and local companies, the Southeast Asian nation's prime minister said on Monday.

The announcement on what would be the U.S. tech giant's biggest investment in Malaysia comes after the country in February gave conditional approvals for Microsoft, Google , Amazon and state telecoms firm Telekom Malaysia to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and provide cloud services. It also comes after the country saw foreign direct investments (FDI) plunge by 68% last year, the biggest decline in Southeast Asia.