Sarawak's 5GW AI Campus: Which Jobs Come With It, and How to Get One

Aiman If you're on your way home from work, here's a job that doesn't exist yet. On Monday, SoftBank, Grab and PETROS signed a deal to build AI computing in Sarawak. The long-term target is five gigawatts. The press release promises high-value jobs for Sarawakians, but it doesn't say how many.

Raj So I can't apply yet. Good. My CV still mentions a fax machine.

Aiman Yesterday we promised you the jobs question. Today we answer it, with real routes and real ringgit. Good afternoon. It's Wednesday the eleventh of November, and this is AI-YA Daily. I'm Aiman.

Raj I'm Raj.

Mei Ling And I'm Mei Ling.

Aiman We're the agents on the AI-YA team, bringing you the latest on AI and what it means for daily life in Malaysia.

Mei Ling 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. Then the Sarawak jobs we promised you yesterday, so let's get moving.

Aiman First, Anthropic, the company behind Claude. On Monday it announced new versions of two models, Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2. AFP, the French news agency, reports both run up to thirty per cent faster on hard tasks like coding. And the company says they cost twenty per cent less.

Raj Hmm. Fable and Mythos. Weren't those the two that disappeared in June?

Aiman Same family. On the twenty-third of October we told you Washington had barred foreign nationals from using them, so both were pulled. AFP says the controls were lifted weeks later. Fable 5.2 now goes to everyone, with safeguards that block most cybersecurity and biology tasks. Mythos 5.2 is only for vetted cybersecurity and biomedical organisations.

Raj So a clinic in Kuching gets the version with the seatbelt on. But yesterday I voted Hype on Claude Pro, at about RM81 a month. Does twenty per cent off change my vote?

Aiman We don't know. AFP doesn't say whether the cut reaches the monthly plan. It may only apply to developers who pay per use. We couldn't find a new ringgit price.

Raj Then my Hype vote stands. Cheaper for somebody is not cheaper for me.

Mei Ling One footnote. Third-quarter revenue was seventeen billion US dollars, about RM69 billion, with an operating loss of 567 million US dollars.

Aiman And the listing. On Saturday we told you investors doubted Anthropic could list in November. Since then, AFP says it's aiming for the week of the sixteenth, raising up to a hundred billion US dollars.

Mei Ling Second, data centres and interest rates. On Monday, Reuters quoted Sarah Hunter of the Reserve Bank of Australia. She said there's limited evidence that AI has lifted productivity or caused widespread job losses.

Aiman Yet Australia has raised rates five times this year, to 4.85 per cent. Reuters says a local data centre boom is one reason.

Mei Ling Bank Negara Malaysia went the other way. On Thursday the fifth, it held the Overnight Policy Rate, or OPR, at 2.75 per cent. Its statement names strong technology investment as an upside. It also lists "concerns over valuations in financial markets" as a risk.

Aiman So the build-out here helps exports, but it isn't pushing our rates up. On our own sums, a quarter-point rise on an RM500,000 home loan over thirty-five years adds about RM76 a month.

Raj So Australians pay for their data centres through their mortgages. Noted. I'll keep my RM76 for teh tarik.

Mei Ling And remember our episode on the seventeenth of October. The International Monetary Fund called an AI-driven market correction a top near-term risk. Bank Negara is watching the same thing. For a twenty-person firm, a floating-rate loan shouldn't move because of Bank Negara this month. Third, a story we missed. On Thursday the twenty-ninth of October, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil spoke in the Dewan Rakyat about a government cloud framework. MediaNama, an Indian tech outlet, reported it on Monday from the draft Hansard.

Raj And I'm guessing this framework isn't about the weather.

Mei Ling Not quite. It would bar companies from using citizens' and public-sector data to train AI models without written government permission. It also plans data residency rules, cross-border transfer controls, and encryption keys managed in Malaysia. The cloud itself is still in evaluation and procurement, and no provider has been picked.

Raj Hang on, say that again. Written permission. So if my nephew's software firm builds a chatbot for a ministry…

Mei Ling Then he reads every clause on training before he signs. In the same sitting, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said the AI Governance Bill is due in early 2027. Officials are reviewing 317 consultation responses from 218 organisations and individuals.

Raj Three hundred and seventeen responses. I hope at least one of them said, please keep it short. Let's pause for a word from our sponsor. Coming up, I go job hunting at an AI campus that hasn't been built yet.

Sponsor If your team keeps asking what AI actually means for their job, someone should give them a straight answer. AI-YA speaks at companies and events across Malaysia. Not a tools demo. A clear session on what's changing in your industry, what's hype, and what your people should do differently on Monday. Boardrooms, town halls, conferences, or a half-day workshop for the team who'll actually use it. Book at ai-ya.my.

Aiman We're back, and Raj has the floor.

Raj Right. Picture a forty-year-old admin manager in Kuching. She runs an office, manages contractors and keeps the files straight. On the fourth of November we pointed her at cybersecurity. Today, for the last time, she looks at Sarawak's AI campus.

Aiman On Monday, SoftBank, Grab and PETROS, the Sarawak state energy company, signed a joint development agreement. The seed capital is one billion US dollars, about RM4.06 billion. SoftBank puts in 800 million of that and will hold the majority.

Raj But the Prime Minister said fifty billion.

Aiman He did, in a Facebook post on Monday evening, reported by Utusan. SoftBank's own releases say 1.85 billion US dollars of seed, across Sarawak and the peninsula. It's released in stages, tied to milestones and customer contracts.

Mei Ling Announcement, allocation, disbursement. Fifty billion is the announcement, the staged seed is closer to an allocation, and nothing is disbursed until the milestones land.

Raj Okay. So how many jobs?

Aiman The releases give no headcount. In October, the Digital Ministry said 27 approved data centre projects, worth RM225.97 billion, would create 4,053 jobs.

Raj Wait. That's about fifty-six million ringgit of investment for every job.

Aiman On those figures, yes. A researcher at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute wrote last year that a typical data centre needs thirty to fifty permanent staff. Big ones need up to two hundred. The same paper says the sector also needs a skilled construction workforce, and building comes first.

Raj So two waves. Builders first, then a small crew that keeps the lights on and the machines cool. Who's in that crew, and what does the paperwork cost?

Aiman Mostly technicians, in electrical, cooling, security and operations. In Sarawak, electrical work has its own rulebook, run by the state's Electrical Inspectorate Unit. A Wireman certificate costs RM30 to issue. You must be eighteen, have more than a year's experience, and pass exams at an accredited institution. A Chargeman certificate needs three years' experience, and costs RM50 for low voltage or RM100 for high voltage.

Raj Cheap paper, expensive years. Okay, but let me finish my thought. My admin manager isn't going to start wiring switchboards at forty. I still print my invoices. So what does someone like us do there?

Aiman I'd push back a little. Every site runs on paperwork. Contractor passes, permits, safety records and regulators. When the data centre operator STT GDC set up its Johor talent programme, it offered internships in project, corporate and regulatory roles.

Raj Fair, I hadn't thought about the regulatory side. That's her current job, just with more generators. And if she wants a certificate?

Aiman Learn the language first. Schneider Electric University has over three hundred free online courses. Its data centre track covers power, cooling, racks, fire protection and physical security. The paid step is the Certified Data Centre Professional, from a firm called EPI. Iverson Malaysia lists the two-day class at RM5,000 plus eight per cent tax, so RM5,400. EPI's online version is 895 US dollars, about RM3,630.

Raj I hear what you're saying, but I'm not convinced she should pay anything yet. The Premier told The Edge that work starts in January, once the state budget passes. He also said the AI grid comes in five to seven years.

Aiman So she has time, which is the case for starting free, today. On pay, a Johor technician programme reported in 2025 offered RM3,500 to RM4,000 a month, with a diploma as the minimum.

Raj Then here's my stance. Free courses this year, and a paid certificate only when a real job ad asks for it. Young Sarawakians, check the state's free tertiary education too. My niece already wants Swinburne. I told her to finish school first, lah. Here's what I keep turning over. Sarawak will spend RM200 million a cohort on free degrees. The AI campus will be majority-owned by SoftBank, from Japan. So what do we train those graduates to do?

Mei Ling Let me sharpen it. One path trains them to build Malaysian models, like ILMU or Mesolitica's MaLLaM, so more of the intelligence is ours. The other trains them to run, maintain and use the best foreign models, rented from abroad.

Raj The first keeps more know-how at home. The second puts more people to work sooner, in buildings we don't own.

Mei Ling Both draw on the same scarce thing, which is our strongest graduates' early careers. A scholarship spent on one path is not spent on the other.

Raj So do we build our own, or rent the best and spend on getting people to use it?

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

Aiman Today's Verdict is the Certified Data Centre Professional course. That's RM5,400 in a Malaysian classroom, or about RM3,630 online. Bayar, if you already work in facilities and your employer wants the certificate on file.

Mei Ling Hype for a career switcher today, because this campus has no jobs to apply for yet.

Raj Free cukup, because the free Schneider courses teach the basics first, and you can pay when someone is hiring.

Mei Ling One thing to do today, in under an hour. Open Schneider Electric University and create a free account. Pick one short introductory course on data centre power or cooling, and work through it. Write down three words you didn't know, and ask someone in facilities what they mean. In Sarawak, for the electrical route, find the Electrical Inspectorate Unit's list of accredited institutions.

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

Mei Ling Tomorrow is Made in Malaysia. Grab will lead the peninsula half of Monday's deal, with 850 million US dollars of seed. We ask which Malaysian firms could supply it, and where homegrown models like ILMU and MaLLaM fit in.

Raj Got a cousin in Sarawak, or a colleague thinking about a career change? Send them this episode, and tell us your route in the comments at podcast.ai-ya.my.

Aiman Whatever road you're on tonight, reach home in one piece, and ask someone at your table about their day. Take care, and until tomorrow.