KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian inventor of the USB flash drive, Datuk Pua Khein-Seng, has returned to invest in homegrown tech talent through a newly launched high-tech company.
Pua’s firm, Malaysia AI Storage (MaiStorage), is offering fresh graduates a starting salary of RM6,000 and competitive five-figure pay packages for experienced engineers.
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The initiative is part of his wider effort to position Malaysia as a regional hub for microchip design and AI-driven data storage, said PKR deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar.
In a recent
Facebook post, Nurul Izzah said MaiStorage was launched two months ago as the local arm of Phison Electronics Corporation, the Taiwan-based company founded by Pua.
Known as the “father of the pendrive”, Pua had attempted to develop Malaysia’s chip design industry in 1999, but moved his plans to Taiwan after facing bureaucratic hurdles.
He has now committed RM100 million in investment and RM1 billion in technology transfer to build local infrastructure and nurture engineering talent.
With backing from Nurul Izzah and the Selangor Information Technology & Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec), MaiStorage is expected to be one of the key drivers of a Silicon Valley-style ecosystem in Selangor, with plans to list on Bursa Malaysia by 2028.
