Khazanah to fund power grids and chip firms for AI surge

Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional is shifting investment emphasis toward electricity grid resilience and semiconductor capability to capture growth from surging artificial intelligence computing demand, the fund’s managing director said in Davos. Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir signaled the reorientation during an interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting on Jan. 19, 2026, framing energy supply and cheap, reliable power as central to national competitiveness in an AI-driven economy.

“What it does need is computing power and what computing power means energy. So that's when we think about capturing some of that growth,” Amirul Feisal said, explaining why Khazanah will prioritise infrastructure over direct data‑centre ownership. He added that the fund is focusing on “grid resilience,” and stressed that “cheap and reliable power, including renewables, would be critical as AI infrastructure scales up.”

The announcement marks a tactical pivot from the recent trend of global capital flowing into data centres themselves. Khazanah intends to strengthen the underlying systems that make large-scale computing feasible: transmission networks, resilience measures that prevent blackouts, and expanded renewable generation that can supply low‑cost, lower‑carbon power to energy‑hungry AI facilities. The fund also plans to support local semiconductor‑related firms, exploring ways to finance moves up the value chain into advanced packaging and other higher-margin activities.

Khazanah has long invested across markets, asset classes and geographies, and Amirul Feisal said he expects the international share of the fund’s portfolio to grow gradually. The move to infrastructure and semiconductor capability is designed to complement, rather than compete with, private and global investors who have concentrated on building data centres. By making the domestic power system more robust and cheaper, Khazanah aims to reduce a key barrier to attracting large-scale AI and chip manufacturing projects.

The fund enters this strategy from a position of strengthened balance sheets. Khazanah’s net asset value rose 22 percent to RM103.6 billion in 2024 from RM84.8 billion in 2023. Its portfolio includes major Malaysian names such as lender CIMB Group and the national carrier, Malaysia Aviation Group. Khazanah will need to decide how much capital to allocate to grid projects versus semiconductor support and whether to co-invest with private partners or governments.

Amirul Feisal also commented on currency and macro uncertainty, saying there was “room” for the ringgit to strengthen depending on movements in the U.S. dollar and the path of U.S. interest rates. The exchange rate context matters for Khazanah and for international investors: $1 was equivalent to 4.0520 ringgit in the figures cited by the fund.

The shift aligns with Malaysia’s broader industrial ambitions. In May 2024, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim outlined a government plan to allocate at least US$5.3 billion in fiscal incentives to attract as much as US$123.4 billion of semiconductor investment and to build domestic capabilities in design and advanced packaging. Khazanah’s capital could serve as a financing bridge between those public incentives and private industry commitments.

Energy infrastructure and semiconductor capability are long‑term plays that will test coordination between state actors and private markets. If Khazanah delivers targeted grid upgrades and helps local firms ascend the chip value chain, Malaysia could strengthen its hand in the race to host AI computing and manufacturing, but meaningful impact will depend on the scale, timing and partners Khazanah selects.