Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA and Dato’ Seri Yeoh Seok Hong, Managing Director of YTL Power International Berhad (YTL Power) today met with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Gyeongju where he is attending the APEC Leaders Economic Summit 2025.
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From left: Managing Director of YTL Power International Berhad, Dato’ Seri Yeoh Seok Hong; NVIDIA Corporation founder and CEO, Jensen Huang; Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim; and Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, at a recent meeting on AI development in Malaysia.
The meeting, also attended by Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), highlighted the significant progress made in Malaysia’s Sovereign AI landscape in the 22 months since Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Jensen Huang met in Kuala Lumpur in December 2023 to discuss Malaysia’s AI future.
In this short time, Malaysia has made huge strides in its aspiration to be an AI Nation. It launched the National AI Office under the Digital Ministry in December last year and has announced a set of initiatives to drive AI adoption in the country, including the development of a Sovereign AI Cloud and a range of programs for AI upskilling and adoption in the public and private sectors. Malaysia also launched ILMU, its first large language model, at the Asean AI Summit in August this year.
Key achievements discussed included the successful completion of YTL Power’s state-of-the-art AI data centre facility in partnership with NVIDIA at the 600MW YTL Green Data Center Park in Kulai, Johor. This facility, which is powered by liquid cooled NVL72 Grace Blackwell (GB 200) GPUs, together with ILMU, represent a major step forward in building Malaysia’s own Sovereign AI.
Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, speaking following the meeting in Gyeongju, expressed strong support for Malaysia’s AI ambitions. “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. 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.
Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, commented, “The Government of Malaysia has earmarked RM5.9 billion in its 2026 budget to bolster the nation’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector. This substantial investment underscores our unwavering commitment to positioning Malaysia as a premier regional hub for AI innovation and data centre excellence. We will continue to actively promote strategic investments in AI infrastructure, driving forward our mission to lead in digital transformation. In alignment with the National Industrial Master Plan, we are accelerating the adoption and integration of AI across the manufacturing and manufacturing-related services sectors—empowering industries to enhance productivity, competitiveness, and global relevance.”
Dato’ Seri Yeoh Seok Hong, said, “It has 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.
We thank the Government for its foresight in establishing the policy frameworks that have enabled the rapid advancement of AI infrastructure across the country.”