KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency said it is investigating alleged abuse of power, fraud and governance issues tied to a RM1.11 billion ($279 million) agreement between the government and British chip designer Arm Holdings, a deal meant to expand Malaysia’s chip-design capabilities, according to Reuters and Business Today.
MACC chief Azam Baki said 12 people have been summoned so far, including a former minister and officials from the economy ministry and Malaysia’s investment agency, as investigators review governance and procurement questions around the contract, as reported by Reuters, Business Today and The Manila Times.
Deal under scrutiny
The agreement, announced last year, commits Malaysia to pay $250 million over 10 years for access to Arm’s chip design plans and related technology to help local manufacturers move into higher-value design work, according to Reuters, Domain-b and Business Today.
Government officials have framed the deal as a cabinet-backed push to move Malaysia from back-end assembly and packaging into front-end chip design, aligning with the country’s semiconductor ambitions under the 13th Malaysia Plan, according to Bernama.
Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said two companies already received IP access last year and the program is designed to train 10,000 chip-design talents, arguing continuity should proceed while investigators do their work, as reported by Bernama.
Industry stakes
Malaysia is a major player in the global semiconductor supply chain; its semiconductor exports were valued at RM387.98 billion in 2024, according to figures cited by Business Today and The Manila Times.
Penang, home to a dense cluster of fabs and assembly operations, is often dubbed the country’s Silicon Valley, and the government has announced plans for a semiconductor design park to push the industry beyond packaging and testing, according to Business Today and The Manila Times.
Azam said the anti-graft commission is also reviewing a separate proposed takeover of IJM Corp by Sunway, underscoring a wider scrutiny of high-profile corporate deals, according to Reuters and Domain-b.
Investigators said the Arm probe will be handled fairly and professionally and that more witnesses will be called, while officials stressed they will cooperate and keep the industrial policy on track, as reported by Reuters and Bernama.
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Image: “Semiconductor Wafer of Microelectronics” by DrHughManning (Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Semiconductor_Wafer_of_Microelectronics.jpg. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Modifications: resized to 1920×1080, converted to PNG.