by Agmo Studio
Budget 2027 was tabled on 9 October and carried several AI measures, from SME adoption funding to a sovereign AI cloud. Globally, Anthropic released a lower-priced small model aimed at high-volume business workloads.
Malaysia
Budget 2027 sets aside RM6 billion for R&D, AI adoption and skills
According to The Sun, Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that RM6 billion will be allocated across ministries for research, development and commercialisation, alongside efforts to widen AI adoption among businesses and build talent. AI Malaysia Bhd is to receive nearly RM15 million for a safe and ethical AI ecosystem, linked to a target of 200,000 skilled AI workers. MDEC will provide a RM30 million fund to help 4,000 micro, small and medium enterprises adopt AI and automate operations, and to train and certify 5,000 AI professionals.
Why it matters: SMEs weighing AI projects may be able to draw on MDEC-backed support, while employers should expect more certified AI talent over time. Eligibility details were not given in the report.
Source: The Sun Malaysia
Malaysia is developing a sovereign AI cloud to keep national data local
The Sun reports that Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia is developing a sovereign AI cloud so that citizens' data and strategic information stay under national control. The report adds that Malaysia received Tier 1 recognition for readiness to move to post-quantum cryptography, and that NACSA and MCMC will develop local data protection technology against quantum threats. MyDigital ID was cited as having more than 14 million registered users and access to 203 services. No timeline, funding amount or operator for the cloud was given.
Why it matters: Businesses handling government or sensitive data should watch how the sovereign cloud is defined, since it may influence where AI workloads and data can be hosted. Details are still to come.
Source: The Sun Malaysia
National Scam Response Centre to build AI app for checking suspicious contacts
The Sun reports that the National Scam Response Centre will develop an AI application allowing the public to check suspicious phone numbers, bank accounts or links before making transactions. The measure was announced as part of Budget 2027 and is aimed at detecting scammers earlier. The report says the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has blocked more than 5.7 billion scam-related calls and SMS so far. No launch date or cost for the app was provided.
Why it matters: Companies in finance, e-commerce and telecoms may see fewer scam-driven customer losses if such a tool is adopted, and could consider how their own fraud checks would fit alongside it.
Source: The Sun Malaysia
Global
Anthropic releases Claude Haiku 5.5 with sharply lower prices
Anthropic announced Claude Haiku 5.5 on 7 October, describing it as its cheapest and fastest small model. For prompts up to 100,000 tokens it is priced at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens, which the company says is 90 percent lower than Haiku 4.5. It is available through Anthropic's API and on AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. Anthropic positions it for high-volume tasks such as summarisation and classification, and the benchmark results are self-reported.
Why it matters: Lower per-token prices can make routine AI tasks such as document triage and customer-message classification cheaper to run. Real costs still depend on token usage and accuracy, so pilot before committing.
Source: Anthropic
AI Daily News Corner is compiled with AI assistance from the sources linked above and summarised in our own words. Details can change, so check the original reports. More daily AI news · AI consulting from Agmo.