Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim met Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (second from left) and YTL Power managing director Yeoh Seok Hong in Gyeongju on the sidelines of the Apec Leaders’ Economic Summit. (PMO pic)
GYEONGJU: Malaysia has completed its first Nvidia-powered data centre in Kulai, Johor, under the RM10 billion project between YTL Power International and the US technology firm.
This was revealed during a meeting among Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and YTL Power managing director Yeoh Seok Hong on the sidelines of the Apec Leaders’ Economic Summit here today.
Anwar said their discussions also covered progress in implementing the centre’s sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) agenda, including the establishment of the National AI Office and the launch of the country’s first large language model, Ilmu.
“Establishing our own sovereign AI is very important in developing a secure, trusted AI-enabled digital ecosystem.
“I congratulate YTL and Nvidia on achieving this significant milestone, and I sincerely hope that this will accelerate the AI drive for the benefit of all Malaysians,” he said in a statement released by YTL.
The Kulai facility, located within the 600MW YTL Green Data Centre Park, uses Nvidia’s latest NVL72 Grace Blackwell (GB200) GPUs to power Malaysia’s sovereign AI cloud and ILMU, launched in August.
Investment, trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who was present at the meeting, said the government had earmarked RM5.9 billion in the 2026 budget to strengthen the AI sector and position Malaysia as a regional hub for data centre and AI innovation.
“We will continue to actively promote strategic investments in AI infrastructure, driving forward our mission to lead in digital transformation,” he said.
Yeoh said it had become increasingly vital for nations to develop sovereign clouds to host government and citizen-facing AI services.
“With the YTL AI Cloud now operational, and the launch of Ilmu, our Malaysian-developed and owned large language model, Malaysia will be among the first in the region to benefit from true sovereign AI capabilities,” he said.
