Malaysia is evaluating Huawei's Ascend 910C as the core compute for a sovereign AI program worth 2 billion ringgit, with the aim of keeping government, military and intelligence data inside the country, according to people familiar with the talks. The number of chips under consideration has not been determined. Huawei's newer Ascend 950 remains in limited production and is not on Malaysia's shortlist, the people said.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said he wants Malaysia to be more than a passive buyer of foreign tech, and his administration is urging local telecom players to propose broader AI frameworks alongside overseas partners. He has also flagged US legal constraints as a hurdle to data sovereignty, pointing to the US Cloud Act. "I do not consider that law reasonable, but how does one argue with President Trump?" he told students in April.
One person familiar with internal discussions said the government views the choice as a commercial call. The Prime Minister's Office, which also leads the national security council, and the Ministry of Digital did not respond to requests for comment. Huawei did not respond.
Should Malaysia proceed with Huawei silicon, it would mark the earliest publicly recorded case of a non-U.S. government formally choosing Chinese AI accelerators instead of American alternatives. That would run against the Trump administration's push to shape global AI infrastructure and follows last year's specific warning from Trump's team that the use of Ascend 910C chips could breach US export rules. Washington has been broadly encouraging the world to use American AI hardware so China does not end up dominating AI data centers the way it did telecommunications.
A State Department spokesperson said, "Secure technology is the foundation of a prosperous economy." They also called Malaysia "a growing market and manufacturing hub for technology products," and noted that the two nations have a reciprocal trade agreement set for 2025. In a separate warning about supply chain risks, the spokesperson said, "Untrusted suppliers can be manipulated, disrupted or controlled by authoritarian regimes that have insufficient regard for privacy and human rights and are all too willing to use economic coercion and force to achieve their aims," adding that such suppliers threaten critical infrastructure, privacy, intellectual property and national security. US officials have additionally conveyed to Malaysian counterparts their worries about Huawei equipment being used with intelligence materials, including sensitive data supplied by foreign governments.
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One US official asserted that American tech leads the world and emphasized that advancing US AI exports ranks among their top priorities. Washington is also working on bundled AI offerings of hardware, software and applications for the Global South, potentially with US government financing. Some in Trump's orbit are frustrated that US firms have not had more chances to compete for Malaysia's business. Officials from Malaysia's national security council plan to meet counterparts in Washington later this month, and Anwar's team is weighing a separate tender that could allow companies like Nvidia to contend more directly for the sovereign AI contract.
Telekom Malaysia Bhd. was picked after a public tender to run the sovereign AI project. It already partners with Huawei and uses the company's tech in its cloud infrastructure, while its current AI compute service is powered by Nvidia chips. Telekom Malaysia did not comment. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices did not respond to requests for comment.
Malaysia's deputy communications minister said in May 2025 that the country planned to build a national AI platform powered by 3,000 Huawei Ascend chips. Her office quickly retracted the remarks without explanation, and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry said the project was private and not backed by the government. At the time, the ministry said Malaysia "remains committed to full compliance with all applicable export control laws," while also reaffirming the country's sovereign right to set policy in line with national interest. Some Trump officials interpreted Malaysia's rapid move to pull back from Huawei at that time as proof that US guidance on particular Ascend parts, including the 910C, was discouraging adoption.
Huawei has spent years improving its AI silicon under US restrictions on foreign tooling. Its accelerators still lag Nvidia's by a wide margin, but as its manufacturing outlook improves, Huawei is pushing into data center markets across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The company is likewise competing to construct an AI data center in Egypt, which has prompted Trump's team to prepare a rival bid.
The outcome will further gauge how Trump's administration handles ties with governments that are not wholly aligned with Washington but still seek US investment. Malaysia hosts one of the fastest-growing AI data center ecosystems worldwide, propelled largely by initiatives from American firms, positioning it as a pivotal battleground for Nvidia, Microsoft and Oracle.
A Malaysia move toward Huawei would highlight how export rules, data sovereignty and supplier trust collide in real contracts. It could influence where new AI data centers get built, which chips fill the racks and how governments weigh geopolitics against performance and price. If you track AI infrastructure, telcos or cloud providers in fast-growing markets, the outcome here could hint at who supplies the next big wave of compute.
