YTL Power International Bhd has completed Malaysia’s first Nvidia-powered AI data center in Johor, in partnership with Nvidia Corp, the company announced last Friday. Powered by Nvidia’s latest liquid-cooled NVL72 Grace Blackwell (GB 200) GPUs, the data center was commissioned last month and is already operational, with global hyperscalers counting among some of its customers. The announcement was made following a meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Nvidia founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang and YTL Power managing director Datuk Seri Yeoh Seok Hong during the Apec Leaders’ Economic Summit 2025 held in Gyeongju, South Korea.
YTL Power has so far invested RM10 billion (US$ 2.38 billion) on its AI programme – half in data center infrastructure and half in AI solutions, including Malaysia’s first large language model, Ilmu, said YTL’s Yeoh at the sidelines of the event.
“We are now talking about further expansion but the speed of further expansion will also be very dependent on the adaptation of the Malaysian government to AI utilisation,” he added.
Spread across 1,640 acres at the YTL Green Data Center Park in Kulai, Johor, the data center will support large-scale, high-performance AI and machine learning workloads. The now operational YTL AI Cloud will host government and citizen AI services, delivering one of the world’s most advanced supercomputers. It is expected to reach full capacity within two years.
Power will come from both a 500 megawatts (MW) solar plant and a 600 MW of backup supply from the national grid. “We already have 300 MW being built and commissioned on the site,” Yeoh said. He added that about 200 local startups are working with YTL Power to connect to their APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and build their own AI-driven solutions, reflecting the strong momentum in Malaysia’s AI ecosystem.
“I congratulate YTL and Nvidia on achieving this significant milestone and hope it will accelerate the AI drive for the benefit of all Malaysians,” Anwar said. “I reiterate Malaysia’s commitment to emerge as one of the leading AI nations by 2030, not just a technology consumer, but rather a value creator and driver of innovation that will boost the economy and the well-being of the people. Developing sovereign AI is an important step towards ensuring the country’s digital sovereignty, building an ecosystem based on trust, security and moral responsibility,” he added in a statement published on the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) website.
The Malaysian government has allocated RM5.9 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) under Budget 2026 to strengthen its AI sector and position the country as a regional hub for AI innovation and data center excellence.