It goes without saying that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has taken great strides to grow Malaysia’s AI infrastructure. Which is why he met up with NVIDIA president and CEO Jensen Huang to discuss AI development in the country on the side during the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM).
Huang convened with Anwar alongside Datuk Seri Yeoh Seok Hong, Managing Director of YTL Power International Bhd. There, Anwar received updates from Huang and Yeoh regarding the progress of the RM10 billion AI infrastructure project in Malaysia, which was signed by both businesses earlier this July.
Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) was also a part of the meeting. The discussion highlighted the significant progress made in Malaysia’s Sovereign AI landscape over the past 22 months, beginning in December 2023.
During this brief period, Malaysia has had major developments in its aspiration to be an AI nation. Just in December of last year, the Digital Ministry launched the National AI Office (NAIO) and announced a set of initiatives to drive AI adoption in the country. These include the development of a Sovereign AI Cloud and a range of programmes for AI upskilling and adoption in the public and private sectors.
They also discussed ILMU, the country’s first LLM, which had a soft launch during the NAIO’s soft launch. YTL officially launched a chatbot based on the LLM, called ILMUchat, which was launched earlier in August.
One of the key achievements mentioned was the successful completion of YTL Power’s AI datacentre that is located in Kulai, Johor. This facility, alongside ILMU, marked a major step in building Malaysia’s own Sovereign AI.
Following their meeting, Anwar expressed wholehearted support for Malaysia AI plan. “Malaysia aims to become a leading AI nation by 2030 — leveraging AI to boost productivity, enhance public services, and build a sustainable, inclusive, and ethical digital economy,” he said. “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.”
Utama then commented that the country earmarked RM5.9 billion during the tabling of the 2026 budget to bolster the country’s AI sector. The minister mentioned that this investment highlights their commitment to positioning Malaysia as the premier regional hub for AI.
On the other hand, Yeoh mentioned how “increasingly vital” it is for countries to develop sovereign clouds to “host government and citizen-facing” AI services. He then goes on to mention that, with YTL AI Cloud and ILMU being fully operational, Malaysia will be the first in the region to benefit from “true Sovereign AI capabilities”.
(Source: YTL Power [Press release], The Edge Malaysia)
