KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): YTL Power International Bhd released its Malaysian large language model (LLM), Ilmu 0.1, which outperforms global counterparts in Bahasa Melayu.  

Ilmu 0.1 was released in conjunction with the launch of the National AI Office by the Digital Ministry, according to the company’s statement on Thursday. An LLM is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that can recognise and generate text, among other tasks.

“Ilmu 0.1 demonstrates superior performance and a deep understanding of Malaysia’s culture and local context,” YTL Power said.  

“Notably, it has successfully passed both PT3 and SPM national exams in the Malay language, underscoring its potential to support various sectors effectively in local applications and use cases,” it added.  

According to YTL Power, Ilmu 0.1 outperforms other models globally on the Malay MMLU benchmark — including OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Meta’s Llama-3.1-70B, and ACE Market-listed Agmo Holdings Bhd’s Merdeka-LLM. 

YTL Power managing director Datuk Seri Yeoh Seok Hong said by building world class AI infrastructure and ecosystem, the company looks forward to working with the government towards the establishment of Malaysia as an AI nation with its own sovereign AI cloud and sovereign LLM. 

“We are committed to working with international partners and local scientists to continue to develop Ilmu into a globally top-performing LLM,” he added. 

Last year, YTL Power formed a strategic partnership with GPU maker Nvidia to bring their GB200 Grace Blackwell Supership to power their YTL AI Supercomputer located at a 1,640-acre data centre facility in its 500MW green data centre campus in Johor.

YTL Power said that with Ilmu 1.0, the 500MW green data centre and strategic partenrship with Nvidia, the company has invested over RM20 billion in the AI space to date. 

Shares in YTL Power ended six sen or 1.66% higher at RM3.67, valuing the company at RM30.34 billion.