Nvidia and Malaysian conglomerate YTL's power unit (YTLP) are developing $4.3 billion in artificial intelligence cloud and supercomputer infrastructure in Malaysia.

Reported by Reuters, the first phase of the project is expected to be operational by mid-2024.

The project will be hosted in a data center at YTL's data center park in Kulai, Johor. Here, the companies will develop Malaysia's fastest supercomputers using Nvidia's AI chips. YTL will also use Nvidia's AI cloud computing platform to build a large language model in Malay.

"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," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, prior to the announcement of the partnership.

Prime Minister Anwar said of the agreement: "The decision to invest in Malaysia is a clear signal that foreign investors, especially technology giants, continue to make the country a primary destination of choice in this region."

The YTL data center park was first announced in August 2022 and is planned to eventually be a 500MW campus. Singaporean IT firm Sea is reported to be the anchor tenant for the development, and GDS is also developing a data center on the campus.

Earlier this month, DCD reported that 15 percent of Nvidia's Q3 revenue came from Singapore, notably making the city-state on Malaysia's border the company's fourth biggest customer globally. Per capita, Singapore spent $600 on Nvidia chips, compared to $60 in the US and $3 in China.

It is unclear what has led to this huge demand, be it shell companies using the location, or that Singapore is developing products that will be sent elsewhere.