Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said that Intel will invest RM860 million ($208m) to make the country its “installation and testing operations center.”

Anwar made the announcement after meeting with fellow Malaysian and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan yesterday afternoon.

It is unclear how this money will be spent.

The American chip giant already operates a packaging factory in Penang, an island state located off the country's northwestern coast.

Intel stated in July that it would be consolidating its assembly and testing facilities into larger existing sites in Vietnam and Malaysia, whilst shuttering its facilities in Costa Rica.

According to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, in 2024, the country possessed 13 percent of the global market for semiconductor packaging, assembly, and testing.

Under Anwar, the government has tried to push itself higher up the semiconductor value chain. Last year, the country announced that it would invest RM500bn ($121bn) in the development of integrated circuit design, advanced packaging, and manufacturing equipment for semiconductors.