Malaysia open to formal request to probe Speedmatrix

 Investment, trade and industry minister Johari Abdul Ghani says the government has yet to receive any such request.

Investment, trade and industry minister Johari Abdul Ghani said discussions with data centre operators had focused on distinguishing between the use of graphics processing units at their facilities and the re-export of these chips. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR:

Malaysia is ready to facilitate any formal request to investigate Speedmatrix Sdn Bhd, says investment, trade and industry minister Johari Abdul Ghani.

However, he said the government is yet to receive any such request.

“If they have a case, they can come and check. No problem. We will facilitate,” he told reporters after the launch of MySaham MITI yesterday.

Johari said this when asked on whether the government had received a formal request to probe Speedmatrix, a Malaysian unit of Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed International.

It was reported that Speedmatrix, allegedly linked to the Nvidia chip controversy, might have breached the country’s export restriction.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has admitted to having an affair with a woman linked to Megaspeed International, prompting the US-based chipmaker to announce his immediate resignation as president, CEO and board member pending an independent investigation.

Meanwhile, Johari said he had raised the issue with data centre operators, drawing a distinction between using graphics processing units (GPUs) at a company’s own data centre and re-exporting the chips.

“So far I have already informed all the data centres… Is there anything wrong with Speedmatrix or Megaspeed renting the data centre?

“If there is nothing wrong and they buy the GPU for their own use in the data centre, then I cannot see what law we need to use.

“But if there is a restriction in re-exporting that GPU, that is something that we need to look into,” he said. - FMT