Arab Daily

Magna AI, Inc., the global integrated‑value‑chain sovereign AI transformation leader established through a partnership between Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company (WDH), in strategic collaboration with NVIDIA, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) withGlobal Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd., a Malaysian infrastructure technology company, and Zchwantech Cybersecurity Sdn. Bhd., a trusted Malaysian provider of security assurance and cyber resilience solutions, at Computex 2026 in Taiwan. The MoU establishes a strategic collaboration framework to explore the development of sovereign-ready AI infrastructure, AI data centers, secure AI platforms, sovereign AI factory capabilities, and AI transformation services across Southeast Asia, with an initial focus on Malaysia and Thailand.

Southeast Asia is emerging as one of the world’s most dynamic digital infrastructure markets, driven by rapid AI adoption, cloud expansion and growing demand for secure, scalable and locally governed compute environments. According to industry reports, the region’s upcoming data center capacity is nearly four times its current operational capacity, with Malaysia alone holding over 6 GW in the pipeline and Thailand following at approximately 3.5 GW, positioning Southeast Asia at the forefront of the global hyperscale growth cycle.

Against this backdrop, the collaboration brings together Magna AI’s end-to-end AI transformation and AI factory capabilities, Global Telecommunications’ infrastructure, connectivity, power and data center development expertise via their affiliate company Global Data Centre which holds more than 1GW secured powered land across Southeast Asia, and Zchwantech’s cybersecurity and cyber resilience capabilities. Together, the parties aim to support governments, enterprises and regulated industries in building the infrastructure foundation required for secure, sovereign and production-scale AI adoption.

“Southeast Asia is entering a defining phase in its AI transformation journey, where the ability to scale AI securely, responsibly and sovereignly will determine long-term digital competitiveness,” said Dr. Moataz BinAli, Chief Executive Officer, Magna AI. “This collaboration brings together infrastructure, intelligence, and security in a unified model to support national-scale AI adoption, from AI data centers and sovereign AI factories to secure platforms and industry applications. Together with Global Telecommunications and Zchwantech, we are helping architect the foundations for a trusted, sovereign, and future-ready AI ecosystem across the region.”

Under the MoU, the parties will explore the planning, design and advancement of AI data centers and sovereign AI factory frameworks, including compute, storage, networking, data pipelines, model pipelines, AI operations, secure AI lifecycle management and compliant AI environments aligned with local data residency, cybersecurity and regulatory requirements.

The collaboration will also examine commercial and financing structures to support bankable AI infrastructure developments, including potential public-private partnership models, government-backed investment structures, ecosystem investment frameworks and shared AI factory access models for governments, enterprises, startups and academia.

Sylvester Wong, Executive Director, Global Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd, said “AI infrastructure requires more than compute alone. It depends on reliable connectivity, power, data center readiness and strong local execution. Through this collaboration with Magna AI and Zchwantech, we aim to support the development of scalable digital infrastructure that can serve the evolving needs of governments, enterprises and AI ecosystems across Southeast Asia.”

As AI becomes embedded in critical infrastructure and enterprise operations, the threat landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with AI-powered cyberattacks growing in scale. In this environment, security and regulatory compliance are no longer considerations to be addressed after deployment but must be engineered into the foundation of every AI environment. As part of this collaboration, the parties will also explore secure AI operations, AI model security, data protection, workload isolation, threat analytics and AI-driven security capabilities designed to support trusted AI deployment across public and private sector environment

Wayne Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Zchwantech Cybersecurity Sdn. Bhd., said, “Cybersecurity can no longer be treated as an afterthought in AI deployment. It must be engineered into the foundation of every AI environment. Our collaboration with Magna AI and Global Telecommunications strengthens our ability to support secure AI operations, cyber resilience and trusted digital transformation across Malaysia and the wider Southeast Asia region.”

Dr. Michael Hsia, CEO of WiAdvance Technology said, “Southeast Asia is rapidly emerging as a key region for sovereign AI and digital infrastructure development. As a trusted AI service provider, WiAdvance is committed to supporting ecosystem collaborations that enable secure, scalable and sovereign-ready AI infrastructure and services for governments and enterprises across the region.”

The MoU builds on the earlier collaboration between Magna AI and Zchwantech focused on advancing Malaysia’s sovereign AI infrastructure and secure AI ecosystem. The expanded framework reflects a broader regional ambition to support AI data center development, sovereign AI factory capabilities, secure AI platforms, capacity building and go-to-market initiatives across Southeast Asia.