YTL Power International Bhd has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Nvidia Corp valued at RM10 billion (US$2.36 billion) to develop AI data centers using Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s Investment, Trade and Industry Minister announced in a post on social media platform X on Saturday. The AI data center will be powered by green energy but, “most importantly, it will create Malaysia’s own sovereign large language model (LLM),” Zafrul said.
YTL will also build an AI ecosystem in collaboration with technology partners, suppliers and local contractors. As a result, Malaysia is poised to emerge as a regional hub and centre of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) in ASEAN, the minister added.
YTL Power is a subsidiary of YTL Corp Bhd, a Malaysian conglomerate.
In December 2023, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim met with Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang and YTL Power managing director Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong for discussions that led to the deal, according to Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency.