Malaysia is considering Huawei Technologies Co. to supply AI chips for a 2 billion ringgit (US$494 million) sovereign AI initiative, according to people familiar with the matter.

The project aims to keep sensitive government data in the country and expand local AI infrastructure.

Officials are evaluating Huawei’s Ascend 910C chips.

The decision could become an early test of US pressure on overseas buyers after Washington warned globally against using Huawei chips and issued guidance on Huawei AI chips and related compliance checks.

Telekom Malaysia Bhd., a state-linked Malaysian telecommunications operator selected through a public tender to run the project, already partners with Huawei on cloud infrastructure. Its current AI computing service, however, uses Nvidia chips.

Malaysia is also discussing another tender process that could let Nvidia and other suppliers compete more directly for the sovereign AI contract.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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