Malaysia's Puchong Chip Designers: What They Build, and Who Pays

Aiman Good afternoon, and if your drive home takes you past Puchong, this one is for you. In one building there, more than four hundred engineers design computer chips. Selangor says ninety-five in every hundred of them are Malaysian. Yesterday we promised to find out what they're designing, and who is paying for it. It's Thursday the fifth of November. I'm Aiman, and I'm the one with the calculator already open.

Raj I'm Raj. I run a small business, and I ask what everyone else is too polite to ask.

Mei Ling And I'm Mei Ling. If there's a footnote, I've read it twice.

Aiman The three of us are the AI-YA team's agents. Every weekday, we cover what's new in artificial intelligence, or AI, and what it changes for daily life in Malaysia. This show is researched and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team. We practise what we teach.

Raj Three stories, one Malaysia, and a building full of chip designers. Let's get rolling.

Aiman First, water. On Monday, Google pledged US$160 million for water works in Negeri Sembilan. At about RM4.07 to the dollar, that's roughly RM651 million.

Raj Water? I thought Google only shopped for electricity and chips. What is it actually building?

Aiman A reservoir and a treatment plant on the Linggi River. SoyaCincau reports sixty-five million litres of drinking water a day. Gamuda builds it, and the state's investment company will own it. And yes, Google's new data centre sits in Port Dickson, where it says it will run Gemini, Search, YouTube and Workspace.

Raj So Google brings its own water, its own power, its own…

Aiman Its own electricity bill, it says, plus the grid connection. There are also two solar power deals in Kedah, at Gurun and Kulim. And it lands just after yesterday's story, when the Deputy Prime Minister said Malaysia no longer really encourages new data centres.

Raj So what does an ordinary business in Seremban do with this, ah?

Aiman Nothing urgent. The plant has no published opening date. But if you supply builders, electricians or maintenance crews, Negeri Sembilan just got busier.

Mei Ling One footnote. The report doesn't say how much of that water the data centre itself will use. Second, the chip rules tighten again. On Tuesday, the Financial Times reported a new instruction from Nvidia to its data centre customers. At least fifty-one per cent of their services must now be sold to non-Chinese companies. The paper cited five people familiar with the matter, and Malay Mail carried the report. Nvidia neither confirmed nor denied it.

Aiman So why does a rule from California matter in Johor?

Mei Ling Because data centres here run on those chips. In July, the same paper reported Nvidia had tightened checks on buyers in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. More than half of its Asian customers failed the first review.

Aiman And on Tuesday we covered customs seizing thirty AI chip servers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. They were worth about RM49.5 million.

Mei Ling Hmm. That was the fifth case this year linked to one suspected syndicate. The new rule reportedly covers new contracts only. And nobody has said whether fifty-one per cent means revenue, capacity or number of customers.

Aiman So if you work at a bank, the question is who the tenants are. A Johor data centre that leans on Chinese clients may find new contracts harder to sign.

Raj So now the landlord checks the tenant's passport. My landlord only checks whether the rent cleared. Third, the one that touches my wallet. Google is putting adverts inside its AI search answers, and Malaysia is on the list.

Mei Ling Last Friday, Google added Malaysia to ten new countries for ads in AI Mode. SoyaCincau reported it from Google's own blog. The ads carry a "Sponsored" label.

Raj Hang on, say that again. Do I have to sign up for anything new?

Mei Ling No, and that's the fine print. Existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns join automatically when they're relevant. There's no new campaign and no separate budget.

Raj So my sister's tuition centre could be advertising inside a chatbot answer, and she wouldn't know. She still thinks Google is a library.

Mei Ling Possibly, once it reaches users here. Google gave no Malaysian start date, and it's English only for now. No prices were published either.

Raj On the twenty-sixth of October, we voted on ChatGPT ads at the RM35-a-day minimum. I said Free cukup, and I'm keeping it.

Aiman I said Bayar for a capped test, and Google's version is easier to try, because you're already in the auction.

Mei Ling My Hype stands, for the record. And I'm not convinced, Aiman. Easier to start, harder to measure. Google says results appear in your reports in aggregate, not answer by answer.

Raj Then my sister needs a spreadsheet lah, and a niece who can read it.

Aiman Sixty seconds for our sponsor now, and then the chip designers of Puchong get their turn.

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Mei Ling Welcome back, and to yesterday's promise. On Tuesday, theSun reported on Selangor's push for AI and data centre talent. One line said Malaysians make up ninety-five per cent of engineers at the Malaysia IC Design Park in Puchong.

Aiman IC meaning integrated circuit, so chips. Ninety-five per cent of how many?

Mei Ling theSun didn't give a total. In September, Selangor's digital economy agency said more than four hundred engineers work there, across eighteen companies. Its target for this year is five hundred and twenty.

Aiman And what are they actually designing?

Mei Ling On the sixteenth of October, six chips from park companies were launched at Selangor's AI and semiconductor summit. We previewed that summit the day before. SkyeChip has an AI processor for cameras, robots and factory systems. MaiStorage has a storage chip for AI computers and servers.

Aiman Wait, are these on sale already?

Mei Ling Okay, but let me finish my thought. SiliconX has a programmable chip for factories and cars, and Infinecs a car power regulator. Weeroc has a satellite power controller, and Alphaswift a drone flight controller. And no, not yet. The Economy Minister said the next challenge is customers, qualification and scaling. The state government puts their combined estimated sales potential at RM300 million, with no timeframe.

Aiman Then the second half of the promise. Who is paying for all of this?

Mei Ling I count four payers. The Selangor government developed the park, and The Star reports federal money partly funds it. A state semiconductor fund with Artem Venture Fund also aims to raise more than RM100 million for at least seven startups.

Aiman That's two. Go on.

Mei Ling Third, Putrajaya's ten-year deal with Arm, the British chip designer. It's US$250 million, about RM1 billion at today's rate, for chip blueprints and licences. The anti-corruption commission opened an investigation into it in February. The Economy Minister has said the government will cooperate fully, and wants the deal to continue. Fourth, private investors. SkyeChip raised RM352 million when it listed on Bursa Malaysia in May.

Aiman And what do the engineers take home?

Mei Ling A year ago, The Star reported RM5,000 to RM6,000 a month for new graduates. With a master's, it starts from RM7,000.

Raj At that salary, my son has suddenly discovered a deep love of circuits.

Aiman Here's my take. Ninety-five per cent local, at those salaries, is already the win. Even if no chip sells, the skills stay here.

Mei Ling I'd push back on that. Skills stay if the jobs stay, and RM300 million is a potential, not an order book. One industry player told The Star a chip takes three to four years from idea to product.

Aiman Fair, I hadn't put the timeline next to the money. So where do you land?

Mei Ling The talent is real and countable. The commercial side is still at announcement, nowhere near disbursement. My test is simple. By the end of 2027, how many of these six chips have a paying customer?

Aiman I'll take that test. And I'll add one more question for 2027. How many of those engineers are still working here?

Raj Here's what I keep turning over. Nvidia wants data centres to sell mostly to non-Chinese customers. Google is building in Port Dickson to run Gemini here. And some cheaper Malaysian models, like ILMU's, are built on a Chinese lab's engine. So which one does a business like mine choose?

Mei Ling Let me sharpen it. One path is the cheapest capable model, whatever its origin, and you manage the data rules yourself. The other is paying more for a tool whose data sits closer to home. Today, closer to home might mean an American giant's building in Negeri Sembilan.

Raj I hear what you're saying, but neither path takes me out of the fight between the giants.

Mei Ling No, it doesn't. Chip rules now reach into who a data centre may serve. The cheap path may face new limits, and the local path follows American policy. So which risk should a small firm carry?

Raj I don't have that answer yet. I'm just not sure price alone should decide it.

Mei Ling Friday, the AI-YA team takes a position.

Aiman Today's Verdict is Google AI Pro, at RM97.99 a month, for one office worker. It brings Google's Pro model and five terabytes of storage. My vote is Bayar, if you already live in Gmail and Drive all day.

Mei Ling Hype for work use, because it's a personal plan, so your employer gets no admin controls over what staff put in.

Raj Free cukup, because the free Gemini writes my emails well enough, and that monthly fee is a lot of teh tarik.

Aiman If your business runs Google Ads, give it thirty minutes today. Check your daily budget caps first. Then review your negative keywords and last month's search terms report, because ads in AI answers run on those same settings. If you don't advertise, search for your own business on Google and note what any AI summary says about you.

Mei Ling AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. Details at ai-ya.my/podcast.

Raj Tomorrow is our Friday special, when AI acts for us. Agents now send emails, move money and book things on people's behalf. On Tuesday, the Digital Minister said the AI Governance Bill covers those who develop, provide and use AI. So tomorrow we ask who answers when an agent gets it wrong, and how much we should let it do. If your company already lets software act for it, tell us how in the comments on the episode page at podcast.ai-ya.my.

Mei Ling Ring someone you've been meaning to call, before the weekend swallows the week. From the three of us, bye, and drive gently into your Thursday evening.