TikTok parent ByteDance to spend $2.1bn to develop AI hub in Malaysia
Malaysia has become a focal point for AI-related investments from global social media.
Last month, Google revealed a $2 billion plan to build a data center and cloud hub in the Southeast Asian country.
And, last month, Microsoft announced a $2.2 billion investment in the market to “drive the cloud and AI revolution in Malaysia”.
Now, ByteDance, the China-headquartered parent company of social video app TikTok, is betting on Malaysia with its biggest investment — and focus on the booming AI business.
As reported by ReutersA social media post last week from the country’s Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, indicated that ByteDance “plans to invest in AI and make Malaysia the hub of AI in the region with a proposed investment of about RM10 billion”. which translates to about $2.1 billion.
Aziz wrote last week that he met with the Vice President of TikTok Helena Lersch to discuss the development of TikTok in Malaysia. He added in this post that ByteDance plans to invest an additional RM1.5 billion to expand its data center in Johor.
As noted here by CNBC, the training and output of AI models uses a large amount of data and processing power, and the proliferation of AI services around the world has led to an increase in the need for large centers that can store all this data.
Citing DC Byte’s 2024 Global Data Center Index, CNBC reports that the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru has become the fastest growing market for data centers in all of Southeast Asia.
Artificial Intelligence is very important to ByteDance. The company was hiring 252 roles related to machine learning around the world from Wednesday (June 19).
The company operates the popular Doubao AI chatbot in China and operates a range of other AI-driven products, from its AI video-making app Capcut to its flagship video app TikTok.
TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm powers the “For You feed” – which, according to TikTok, is “one of the defining features” of the platform.
The algorithm is so important to ByteDance that it would reportedly prefer to shut down TikTok in the US rather than sell the app if its legal challenge against the country’s ‘divest or ban’ law fails.
In music specifically, ByteDance has done extensive research on AI-generated music through its use Speech, Audio & Music Intelligence (SAMI) the group.
As reported by MBW in widely read articles in March, ByteDance has filed several AI music-related patents and trademarks in the US, some of which include titles including. “data mining” and “music production”.
ByteDance also launched a machine-driven music-making app called ByteDance Mawf a few years ago, too Ripple – an AI-powered music-making app that can turn dialed music into a song.
Recently, TikTok was testing an AI Song feature that uses a large language model to enable lyric generation.
Meanwhile, back in Malaysia, when TikTok’s parent company is about to release more than $2 billion in the AI market, the government’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI) wants to make Malaysia a key player in global AI. the market.
In April it launched the AI Sandbox 2024 Pilot Program that it aims to create 900 AI starts in 2026.
This program is supported by the most important company in the world, Nvidia, which, with the AI chips it produces, is a key player in AI model training. In December, Nvidia also made a deal for the development of AI infrastructure worth 4.3 billion in the Malaysian market.
The Malaysian government is reportedly planning to publish a Code of Conduct for Artificial Intelligence (AI) later this month.Music Business Worldwide
