Source The New York Times · Published · Open the original ↗
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How One Country Became the Unlikely Crossroads of the Global A.I. Boom
In Malaysia, U.S. and Chinese tech giants are pouring billions into vast data centers, straining local resources and testing the limits of Washington’s restrictions on advanced chips.
With cheap land and electricity and proximity to undersea cables, Malaysia is a draw for technology companies. Credit...
Across a stretch of southern Malaysia once carpeted with palm-oil and pineapple plantations, signs of China’s global technology ambitions are taking shape.
More than 15 cranes tower over 100 acres of excavated earth, where DayOne, a company with corporate roots in one of China’s biggest data center operators, is building a sprawling complex. A short drive away, at the edge of dense tropical forest, hundreds of workers are completing another facility expected to serve Chinese tech companies.
Inside these data centers will be some of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence chips. The semiconductors, made by Nvidia, are largely banned from shipment to China under American export controls. Yet those restrictions generally do not prevent Chinese companies like ByteDance, DayOne’s biggest customer, from gaining access to the same chips in data centers outside China.
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