Malaysian financial group Maybank has selected Microsoft Azure as one of its main cloud platforms in a five-year agreement.

Valued at RM1 billion ($236.4m), the contract will see Maybank using Microsoft Azure for some of its "most strategic systems, functions, and data workloads."

Through the agreement, Maybank said it hopes to enable the adoption of AI and further its digital transformation journey.

The financial group will also use Microsoft's cybersecurity services and roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to its 44,000 employees.

Dato’ Sri Khairussaleh Ramli, president & group CEO of Maybank, said: “This strategic partnership with Microsoft is a leap forward in our digital transformation journey beyond our M25+ strategy.  It’s not just about technology; it’s about thinking ahead on how we can better serve our customers, improving our ways of working, and accelerating innovations. With the right technology strengthening our core parts of our business, we are building a truly agile, faster, and more competitive environment for sustainable growth and long-term value creation for all our stakeholders and customers.”

Maybank's M25+ strategy was introduced in 2022 and aims to drive growth while focusing on customer centricity, digitization, international expansion, sustainability, and leadership in Islamic banking, and has thus far seen the group investing up to $1.06bn in technology and other areas.

Mayank Wadhwa, president of Microsoft ASEAN, added: “Malaysia stands at a pivotal moment in its digital journey, and Maybank is leading by example. By embedding intelligence into the core of financial services, Maybank is transforming how it serves its customers while setting a powerful example for the industry across ASEAN. At Microsoft, we are committed to supporting this bold vision, one that humanises innovation, empowers people, and accelerates inclusive economic growth for the region.”

Maybank is a known customer of Amazon Web Services, having signed an agreement with Audax and AWS to deliver digital banking solutions on the latter's cloud platform. Information about Maybank's data center footprint is not publicly available.

Maybank announced in June 2025 that it is providing a RM2.5bn ($590m) syndicated Islamic financing to DayOne Data Centers in the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.

Microsoft launched a cloud region in Kuala Lumpur in May 2025, its first in the country.

The cloud company first announced plans for a Malaysia cloud region in 2021. In 2024, the company committed to investing $2.2bn in cloud computing and AI in Malaysia over the next four years.

Over the past year, Microsoft has been steadily snapping up land in Johor, Malaysia. The company is yet to announce any plans for a Johor cloud region.