Partnership with Arm aims to enhance AI, high tech industries in Malaysia, says Rafizi

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s partnership with UK-based Arm Holdings Plc is not a one-off initiative but is ambitious and farsighted, says Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli.

The Economy Minister highlighted that the comprehensive ecosystem partnership aims to develop complex design companies with Arm’s intellectual property (IP) expertise, create 10,000 talents for the pipeline, and design based on the Arm Compute Subsystem (CSS).

“For each of the CSS, we are looking to build a complete supply chain in advanced industries such as AI data servers, autonomous vehicles, IoT, robotics, and others.

“An ecosystem perspective also means that we will prioritise local players as the first resort for every part of the supply chain,” he said during his speech at the launch of strategic collaborations in the semiconductor industry on Wednesday (March 5).

Rafizi stated that a collaboration structure with advanced foreign firms has been established, alongside proposed technology transfer and localisation requirements, to uplift local players in a realistic and holistic manner.

According to Rafizi, the coming months will see the launch of the 10-year vision blueprint, announcements of CSS token recipients, collaborations with local players, and technology prototypes showcased at the next KL20 conference.

He acknowledged questions about why Arm, the world’s largest chip architecture designer, chose Malaysia.

“Time and again, we were convinced that this is indeed the right time, right place, and the right people coming together.

“A collaboration with Arm is a show of confidence in what we could do.

“Malaysians owe it to ourselves to have faith in our abilities and aspirations, and to say that we are ready and will be ready to follow the path of history,” said Rafizi.

Earlier Wednesday, it was reported that Malaysia inked an official agreement with Arm to secure semiconductor design licenses and technology over the next decade to move the country’s chip industry up the value chain.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Rafizi reportedly said the 10-year agreement aims to push Malaysia beyond its traditional role in chip assembly and testing, enabling local companies to design and develop their own semiconductors to compete in the global market.