YTL Explores IPP, Data Centre And AI Prospects In South Africa

NAIROBI, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- Multinational conglomerate YTL Group has been exploring opportunities in the independent power producer (IPP) sector, data centres and artificial intelligence (AI), said YTL Power International Bhd executive director Yeoh Keong Hann.

“Hopefully, in the next year or two, YTL can establish a presence in South Africa, but these are areas where we will need to double down and conduct further research,” he said when asked how soon YTL could enter the South African market.

Energy and water are the bedrock of data centres and AI, and it is vital to have a stable supply of both for any country to prosper in these areas, he told Malaysian media in South Africa.

“Besides energy, YTL also has expertise in water. South Africa wants us to bring some of our expertise in this area as well,” he said.

YTL-owned Wessex Water in the United Kingdom is the highest-ranked water company in the country.

“So, we are talking to them about the possibility of not just building a single data centre or supplying one large language model, but offering an end-to-end sovereign solution that can help South Africa,” he said.

Yeoh is in South Africa as part of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s delegation on a tour of three African countries, namely Ethiopia, South Africa and Kenya.

Additionally, YTL is among the companies specifically invited by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the G20, following a meeting between Ramaphosa and YTL on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit 2025.

Elaborating on the meeting, Yeoh said: “It is great to be in South Africa right now with the Prime Minister and the business delegation.”

“When we were in Kuala Lumpur during the ASEAN Summit, we had the opportunity to meet President Ramaphosa. He was impressed by Malaysia’s position as a global AI hub, as well as by how advanced we are with our local language model, ILMU.”

ILMU is YTL’s homegrown, world-class multimodal language model. Built in Malaysia for Malaysians, it is trained on local languages and data to understand the country’s culture, context and daily realities.

Fully developed, owned and operated in Malaysia, it keeps data local and gives the nation strategic control over its AI future, ensuring Malaysia leads with intelligence rooted in its own values and voice.

“I think he (Ramaphosa) really wanted to see and understand how we could bring this technology to South Africa and to the wider Global South, including other African countries,” Yeoh said.

He added that ILMU can understand local nuances and context, and can even understand ‘Manglish’ (Malay-English mix).

“So, they were also very interested to see how we could adapt that for them, for example, AI that can speak Zulu or a mixture of Zulu and English.”

“We also showcased our Ryt Bank, the world’s first AI-powered bank, and they were pleasantly surprised that it is fully Malaysian technology.”

Overall, Yeoh said the trip has been fruitful in opening potential business opportunities for YTL specifically and Malaysian businesses more broadly.

-- BERNAMA