Malaysian conglomerate YTL’s utilities unit said on Friday (Dec 8) it would partner with US technology giant Nvidia to develop artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the country.

The first phase is expected to be operational by mid-2024, YTL Power International said in a statement.

Reuters exclusively reported earlier on Friday, citing sources, that Nvidia and YTL were in advanced talks to partner over AI infrastructure, with the project to be hosted at a data centre in the southern state of Johor.

Under the deal, the companies will collaborate on building Malaysia’s fastest supercomputers using Nvidia AI chips and with YTL Power International also utilising Nvidia’s AI cloud computing platform to build a large language model in Malay, YTL Power said.

The announcement confirmed the project would be hosted at YTL’s data centre park in Kulai, Johor.

The partnership is set to strengthen South-east Asia’s fast-growing AI ecosystem, as well as Malaysia’s ambitions as a semiconductor manufacturing power. The country has seen rising multi-billion dollar investments from global semiconductor players in recent years, including from Intel and Infineon.

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“Malaysia is an important hub for South-east Asia computing infrastructure, which requires access to land, facilities and power, and YTL could play a great role in that,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters earlier in the day, without directly confirming the deal. REUTERS