KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Malaysia’s semiconductor sector attracted about RM91.9 billion in approved investments between January 2024 and March 2026, according to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti).

Deputy Minister Sim Tze Tzin said this illustrates the effectiveness of the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS) launched in 2024. The approved investment sum comprises RM82.9 billion in foreign direct investment and RM8.9 billion in domestic direct investment.

In terms of talent development, 18,062 local engineers and technicians have been trained as at end-2025, on track with the government's target of 60,000 by 2030, Sim noted.

“These figures reflect global investors’ confidence in the stability of the country’s investment policies as well as the continued strength of Malaysia’s semiconductor ecosystem competitiveness,” the deputy minister told the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday.

Sim was responding to Kampar Member of Parliament Chong Zhemin on the government's strategy to attract new investments in the semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors to ensure that Malaysia remains competitive in the region.

The NSS is Malaysia’s blueprint to shift the country’s semiconductor industry from its current back-end activities such as packaging and testing, towards higher-value front-end activities such as integrated circuit design and wafer fabrication.

He underlined that under the IndustryConnect platform, multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in Malaysia are required to act as anchor companies to integrate local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the global semiconductor and AI infrastructure supply chain.

“For example, local companies that initially began as service providers to MNCs in Malaysia have now evolved into global players producing high-quality automated test equipment, such as Pentamaster Corp Bhd (KL:PENTA) and ViTrox Corp Bhd (KL:VITROX),” Sim said.

“In the chip design segment, this ecosystem has also proven capable of producing local experts who previously served with MNCs and have since successfully established outstanding local chip design companies such as SkyeChip Bhd (KL:SKYECHIP), Oppstar Bhd (KL:OPPSTAR) and GreatAsic [Technology Sdn Bhd],” he added.

Meanwhile, in response to a subsequent question from Kubang Pasu MP Datuk Dr Ku Abd Rahman Ismail on mitigation measures to ensure utility demands from data centres do not impact other industries and the Malaysian people, Sim assured the government assesses the projected water and electricity demand from applicants against the country’s supply capacity.

“We cannot burden the people; we will ensure that priority is given to residents and the Malaysian people. Only when there is excess capacity will we approve applications from data centre companies,” Sim said.

“Currently, based on what has been requested by the Data Centre Task Force, we still have excess capacity that can accommodate the demand,” he added.

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