KUALA LUMPUR: Gamuda Bhd has placed its bets on artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud solutions, announcing two deals which will help it unlock the multi-billion ringgit AI and cloud services business.
The group announced that its unit, Gamuda Technologies Sdn Bhd, and Dagang NeXchange Bhd's (DNex) DNeX Solutions Sdn Bhd have entered a joint venture to provide novel air-gapped Google Distributed Cloud Services (GDC Services) to the public and private sectors in Malaysia.
The GDC Services is a sovereign cloud solution that offers customers the highest regulatory requirements access to Google Cloud's leading AI and cloud technologies in a secure, fully isolated, on-premise environment.
The JV (with an equity ratio of 50:50) is authorised to act as the sole provider of GDC Services targeted at over RM11 billion market across government, including federal and state entities, as well as private entities such as financial service institutions and security-sensitive organisations.
The JV will be the first local provider of specialised air-gapped cloud infrastructure, involved in procuring GDC hardware, expert workload sizing, providing customised AI solutions, application development, ongoing client support, data migration, and infra maintenance to clients.
In a separate announcement, Gamuda said it is also buying a 20 per cent interest in Google Cloud Premier (GCP) Partner company, Cloud Space Sdn Bhd, for up to RM18 million.
A GCP Partner, offers managed services where they help customers design, implement, and manage their GCP infrastructure.
Cloud Space provides solutions and services for Google Cloud, Google Workspace, Chrome Enterprise, and Google for Education, to government and private sectors in Malaysia.
Gamuda shall have first right to form any equity partnership with Cloud Space for any new large-scale cloud projects in Malaysia, with a minimum equity stake of 50 per cent.
Consideration for the proposed investment is based on a valuation range of RM75 million - RM90 million, subject to the achievement of Cloud Space's financial targets.
Gamuda said the proposed investment aims to accelerate Gamuda's digital ambitions in Cloud and AI technologies.
This key move has a potential of RM36 billion market that Gamuda can tap into with its technology services, with core offerings in cloud and AI capabilities.
Gamuda's share price closed higher at RM9.45 a share, giving it a market capitalisation of RM26.8 billion. DNeX's share price closed at 35.5 sen a share, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.2 billion.