KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (Reuters): Malaysian conglomerate YTL's utilities unit will partner with US technology giant Nvidia to develop artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the Southeast Asian country, in a $4.3 billion investment deal.
The first phase is expected to be operational by mid-2024, YTL Power International said in a statement on Friday.
Reuters exclusively reported earlier on Friday, citing sources, that Nvidia and YTL were in advanced talks to partner over AI infrastructure, including supercomputers and cloud computing, 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 Southeast 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.
"Malaysia is an important hub for Southeast 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.
Nvidia to partner Malaysia's YTL Power in $4.3b AI project
FE Team | Published: December 09, 2023 21:43:17
Nvidia to partner Malaysia's YTL Power in $4.3b AI project
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