Malaysia will pay Arm Holdings $250 million over 10 years to acquire the firm's chip design plans for local manufacturers, the government said on Wednesday as it looks to produce its own chips within the next decade amid an AI boom.

Malaysia hopes its Arm deal will help foster 10 local chip companies with annual revenue between $1.5 billion to $2 billion each.

The move forms part of the country’s efforts to produce its own graphics processing unit chips within five to ten years.