On May 21, IBM and the US Department of Commerce announced developments that most Asean boardrooms have yet to fully grasp.
They are building America’s first purpose-built quantum chip foundry in Albany, New York. Called Anderon, the project combines US$1 billion in Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act incentives with another US$1 billion from IBM, alongside intellectual property (IP), assets and a 300mm quantum wafer line.
One week later, IBM filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, committing more than US$10 billion to quantum technologies over the next five years.
The story is not really about the chip itself.
IBM’s Nighthawk chip, with 120 qubits and 218 tunable couplers, is already in users’ hands. The company is targeting quantum advantage by the end of 2026 and a fault-tolerant 1,000-qubit system, Starling, by 2029. The roadmap is real and the pace is accelerating.
What Malaysian boards should focus on, however, is the Anderon announcement because it signals a shift in the global supply chain.
For 30 years, Malaysia has built one of the world’s most important semiconductor industries through advanced packaging, testing and assembly.
The country is world-class in these areas. However, it does not control the front end. The wafers come from elsewhere. Architecture decisions are made elsewhere. The IP that determines what a chip can do is licensed from elsewhere.
Malaysia supplies. It does not lead.
Anderon signals that the front end of the next generation of chips is being established now, not in 2030. While the May 21 announcement was a Letter of Intent, the location has been selected, the capital committed and the company incorporated.
Other quantum vendors are expected to fabricate at Anderon. Supplier networks, equipment partnerships and talent pipelines are being shaped through conversations taking place today.
The window is about 18 months.
To be fair, Malaysia is taking steps. MIMOS is driving the National Quantum Policy 2026-2035. A quantum intelligence centre and talent development initiatives are targeted for launch this year. Operational testbeds and sandboxes are expected by 2027.
The stated ambition is for Malaysia to become Asean’s quantum epicentre. The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone is set to offer tax incentives for quantum technology companies. The Malaysia Cyber Security Strategy 2025-2030 and the National Post-Quantum Cryptography Readiness Roadmap address the security dimension.
These are positive developments, but they may not yet be sufficient.
According to the Lowy Institute in January, Malaysia’s quantum strategy remains largely vendor-supplier based, relying on access to quantum computing infrastructure through partnerships rather than domestic capability-building. While this model enables participation, it also risks deepening technological dependence.
It mirrors the model that shaped Malaysia’s semiconductor industry for three decades. The country became highly effective as a supplier but also developed structural dependencies that continue to influence industrial policy.
The question raised by Anderon is whether Malaysia is preparing to repeat the same pattern in quantum technology at a time when critical architecture decisions could be locked in over the next 18 months.
This is not merely a quantum technology question. It is a capital allocation question, and one that must be addressed in 2026 and 2027 rather than deferred until 2029.
Malaysian boards have a genuine opportunity.
The advanced packaging, testing and assembly capabilities that underpin the country’s semiconductor sector are not irrelevant to quantum technologies. Cryogenic packaging architectures may differ, but the challenge is solvable. Testing and characterisation capabilities have natural adjacencies, while parts of the existing talent base are transferable.
The Johor-Singapore tax incentives provide a starting point, but they do not yet constitute a comprehensive industrial strategy.
The choice is straightforward. Malaysian capital, government investment and corporate leadership can position the country as a supplier within an Anderon-centred quantum ecosystem or as a participant building technologies and capabilities it genuinely owns.
Both paths are valid.
However, they are likely to produce very different outcomes by 2030.
Ts Dr Manju Appathurai holds dual PhDs in Artificial Intelligence (2026) and Crisis Economics, is a licensed clinical psychologist and Licensed Technologist (Ts), and is the founding principal of Mahat Advisory and a strategic adviser to the Dutch Coalition for Defence and Security (Malaysia).
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not represent that of Twentytwo13.
