YTL AI Labs, a unit of YTL Power International Bhd, has launched Ilmu — Malaysia’s first fully homegrown large language model (LLM) — to strengthen the country’s sovereign AI capabilities.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (third from left) attends Ilmu’s launch during the Asean AI Malaysia Summit 2025.
Trained using Malaysian languages, local data, and cultural context, Ilmu can understand and respond in Bahasa Melayu, Manglish, and dialects like Kelantanese, across text, voice, and visual inputs. It has been ranked the top LLM for Malay in the massive multitask language understanding (MMLU) benchmark and matches or outperforms leading global models, according to YTL Power.
The cost of developing Ilmu was not disclosed, though YTL Power said its AI investments — including a 500MW green data centre in Johor, an Nvidia-powered AI supercomputer, and Ilmu — have exceeded RM20 billion.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim hailed the launch as a milestone in building “an AI nation” for all Malaysians, stressing that AI adoption must serve everyone, uphold Malaysia’s values, and help bridge societal gaps. He highlighted its potential to boost governance, innovation, rural development, small businesses, and public services across Asean. YTL Power shares closed one sen higher at RM4.25 on Tuesday, valuing the group at RM36.60 billion.
