Malaysia's anti-graft agency said it has summoned former economy minister Rafizi Ramli for questioning following a probe into a deal involving Arm Holdings Plc.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said it will record Rafizi's statement at its office in the administrative capital of Putrajaya on Monday. The investigation relates to allegations of abuse of power and irregularities centered around 1.1 billion ringgit ($277 million) of semiconductor investments involving the economy ministry and Arm, the agency said in a statement late Saturday.
The MACC has recorded 22 statements from individuals including ministers and senior officials of several government agencies since the probe began in February 2025, it said.
Malaysia inked a pact in March last year to pay the UK firm about $250 million over a period of ten years for a slew of semiconductor-related licenses and knowhow. The government had signed the deal with Arm to help catapult the nation beyond chip assembly and into more valuable semiconductor production.
Rafizi has grown to become a major critic of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in recent months after quitting the cabinet in mid-2025. He participated in a rally held in Kuala Lumpur last month, where protesters reiterated calls for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into allegations involving outgoing anti-graft chief Azam Baki.
A Chinese court ruled that companies cannot terminate employees just to replace them with artificial intelligence systems, as authorities juggle the need to stabilize the domestic labor market with a global race to develop AI technologies.
The court decided that a tech firm in eastern China had illegally fired one of its workers after he refused to take a demotion when his job was automated by AI, according to a statement published by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
"The termination grounds cited by the company did not fall under negative circumstances such as business downsizing or operational difficulties, nor did they meet the legal condition that made it 'impossible to continue the employment contract,'" the court said in the article dated April 28.
Companies cannot unilaterally lay off employees or cut salaries due to technological progress, the court said in a separate statement, citing the same case.
The ruling comes as Chinese companies race to implement AI systems as part of a state-directed push to dominate the new technology. At the same time, planners in the Chinese Communist Party have indicated a willingness to prioritize stability in the labor market as the country reckons with a slowing economy and elevated youth unemployment.
The employee at the center of the case, a quality assurance professional at a tech company identified only as Zhou, had been responsible for checking the accuracy of outputs by large language models, according to the filing. When an AI system took over his job, he was demoted and forced to take a 40% pay cut.
When Zhou refused the reassignment, the company terminated him, pointing to reductions in staffing due to AI. The case went to arbitration and then the Chinese court system, which supported a compensation package.
The ruling builds on a precedent set by another Chinese court in December, which found that AI implementation did not meet the necessary legal standard for a mapping company to terminate one of its employees' contracts.