Aolani signs for 500MW of AI datacentre capacity in Malaysia — a 7× expansion of its GPU footprint by 2027

• Who: Aolani, a Singapore-founded neocloud (founded 2023) selling “AI factories” and GPU cloud in Asia.
• What: Letters of intent to take up up to 500MW of AI datacentre capacity across multiple sites in Malaysia.
• When: Announced 19 October 2026; first capacity targeted to come online from the second half of 2027.
• Scale: Projects up to 580MW committed in Malaysia by 2027, up from approximately 80MW in 2026.
• Spec: Sites designed to Tier III standards; Aolani provides AI infrastructure, GPU deployment and operations.
• Caveat: The letters of intent are non-binding, subject to definitive agreements.

Singapore neocloud Aolani has signed letters of intent to take up 500 megawatts of AI datacentre capacity across Malaysia, with the first capacity targeted to come online in the second half of 2027. The company says the commitment could take its Malaysian footprint to 580MW by 2027 — more than seven times the roughly 80MW it had committed in 2026.

The announcement, issued Monday via Media OutReach Newswire, is the latest sign of Southeast Asia's pull as a destination for AI infrastructure capital. The new sites — spread across multiple locations in Malaysia — will be designed to Tier III standards and house purpose-built AI datacentres supporting Aolani's growing portfolio of AI factories and GPU deployments. Under the arrangement, Aolani itself will provide the AI infrastructure, GPU deployment, and operating requirements across the facilities once built.

The 7× jump

The scale is the story. Aolani says this commitment projects its total Malaysia capacity to up to 580MW by 2027, up from approximately 80MW already committed in 2026 — a roughly 7.25-fold expansion in a single year. For a neocloud that only founded its Singapore operations in 2023, that is an aggressive pace of capital deployment.

Malaysia's pitch, per the company: competitive power costs, available land, and growing governmental and business support for digital infrastructure. The expanded capacity is meant to serve demand from global hyperscalers and AI-native companies while also making compute accessible locally.

Sovereign AI is part of the plan

Beyond serving large cloud customers, Aolani says it is exploring initiatives and partnerships to provide high-performance compute to Malaysian sovereign AI programmes, local enterprises, researchers, and start-ups — a nod to the national-AI angle that has become central to datacentre deals across the region.

“Malaysia is a vital strategic anchor for Aolani and a proven home market,” said chief executive Nicholas Chia, calling the country “firmly established as a global hub for AI infrastructure.” The next stage, he said, is “using local compute to catalyse development of the local AI ecosystem and the broader economy.”

One caveat: it's a letter of intent

The filing itself includes the standard caution: the letters of intent are non-binding and remain subject to negotiation and execution of definitive agreements. The 500MW, in other words, is committed in principle — not yet in contract. Watch the second half of 2027: that is when the first of these AI factories is supposed to come online.

Sources: Media OutReach Newswire release (Aolani), Business Today Malaysia.