With an aim to drive innovation – TM global launched Malaysia’s first sovereign GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offering in late 2024 — enabling scalable, on-demand access to high-performance GPU computing hosted entirely within the country.
This offering aligns directly with its Digital Powerhouse 2030 ambition — to build future-ready digital infrastructure that powers AI innovation, accelerates time-to-market, and unlocks new economic value across Southeast Asia.
Baharul Nizam Said Daliman, Vice President, TM Global speaks with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com on the company’s core focus today and its future plans.
What are some of the key priorities for TM Global today?
At TM Global, our vision is to establish Malaysia as ASEAN’s digital hub — a launchpad for high-performance, low-latency digital experiences that connect global content providers, enterprises, and hyperscalers to Southeast Asia’s booming digital economy.
We’ve been consistently strengthening this position. For instance, our active participation at global platforms like International Telecoms Week (ITW) in the U.S. reflects our commitment to being a trusted global partner. To better serve our customers in North America, we’ve set up four offices — in Washington DC, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles — ensuring we stay close to our partners and better understand their evolving needs.
We’re investing heavily in the future: AI-ready, energy-efficient data centres; edge facilities designed for 5G and latency-sensitive applications; and platform-based services like CPaaS. We’re also scaling up our GPU-as-a-Service capabilities — hosted at our AI-ready core data centres in Malaysia — to meet the growing demand for real-time, compute-intensive AI applications across the region.
There is a rise in demand for GPU-as-a-Service today. How is TM Global enabling real-time AI and analytics across Southeast Asia?
In late 2024, we launched Malaysia’s first sovereign GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offering — enabling scalable, on-demand access to high-performance GPU computing hosted entirely within the country. This is a critical step in helping our customers deploy AI and machine learning applications faster, without the need for costly on-premise hardware.
Our GPUaaS platform is designed with modularity and scalability, catering to a wide spectrum of use cases – from predictive public services, healthcare diagnostics, immersive media, and autonomous technologies — enabled by TM Global’s nationwide high-speed fibre backbone, strategically placed edge nodes and extensive connectivity globally.
This offering aligns directly with our Digital Powerhouse 2030 ambition — to build future-ready digital infrastructure that powers AI innovation, accelerates time-to-market, and unlocks new economic value across Southeast Asia. We are already collaborating with international partners on GPUaaS deployments that will go live this year, further positioning Malaysia as a regional hub for AI workloads and next-gen computing.
Combined with our AI-ready data centres, extensive digital infrastructure and platform-based services, GPUaaS is part of our broader mission to create an inclusive, intelligent digital ecosystem — helping businesses and governments across ASEAN fast forward into the AI era.
How is TM Global scaling sustainable, low-latency infrastructure, including recent partnerships like Singtel’s Nxera?
We’re scaling our infrastructure on multiple fronts to meet the rising demands of a digital and AI-driven economy. One of our key milestones is the strategic partnership with Singtel’s Nxera, we’re building an AI-ready, hyperconnected data center in Johor Bahru (southern part of Malaysia).
With an initial capacity of 64MW and scalability to 200MW — this facility is designed to support hyperscalers, GPU-intensive workloads, and next-generation applications. Its location in southern Malaysia offers a strategic advantage — bridging data flows between Singapore and the wider ASEAN region.
We’ve also expanded capacity at our Klang Valley and Iskandar Puteri data centers to support growing demand, and we’re upgrading edge facilities like Seberang Jaya* to serve as regional hosting points for 5G and latency-sensitive applications like cloud gaming and live streaming.
*Seberang Jaya is located on the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia, near Penang — one of Malaysia’s most important tech and manufacturing hubs. Its strategic location makes it an ideal regional edge site for latency-sensitive applications targeting northern Malaysia, southern Thailand, and beyond.
Sustainability is embedded in our design — with energy-efficient operations, LEED certifications, and smarter network utilization. By offering cost-efficient access to high-performance computing for AI model training and inferencing, we enable both businesses and the government sectors to adopt AI-driven solutions with greater ease, ensuring both operational efficiency and scalability.
How do you look at strengthening digital corridors between the U.S., Malaysia, and neighboring ASEAN markets?
At TM Global, we’re focused on strengthening digital corridors that connect the U.S. with Malaysia and the broader ASEAN region — enabling seamless, high-capacity data transfer across borders and oceans.
We’re doing this by expanding our participation in strategic submarine cable systems and securing facilities-based operator licenses in key regional markets like Singapore. This significantly enhances our cross-border capabilities and extends our reach across the critical Singapore–Malaysia–Indonesia corridor — one of the busiest routes for global cloud, content, and enterprise traffic.
In parallel, we’ve established a strong presence in the United States with offices in Washington DC, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles — allowing us to work more closely with American carriers, hyperscalers, and digital-native companies to bring their services closer to Southeast Asian users.
What’s driving hyperscaler and enterprise demand across the region, and how is TM Global responding?
We’re seeing a sharp rise in demand from hyperscalers and enterprises across Southeast Asia, largely driven by the exponential growth of AI workloads, high-resolution content streaming, cloud-native services, and mobile-first applications. These use cases all demand ultra-low latency, scalable infrastructure, and high-throughput connectivity — and that’s where TM Global comes in.
We’re responding with a portfolio of purpose-built solutions: sovereign GPU-as-a-Service platforms, distributed edge computing nodes, robust content delivery network (CDN) capabilities, and data centres designed for hyperscale performance and energy efficiency.
One clear example is in Seberang Jaya, our edge site in northern Malaysia near Penang — a growing tech and manufacturing hub. We have expanded the power capacity as we saw a 145% increase in customer orders, a clear indicator of real-time market demand for faster, more resilient connectivity at the edge.
Please share TM Global’s vision for ASEAN: How is Malaysia positioning itself as a regional digital hub, and what’s TM Global’s roadmap to 2030?
Our vision is to establish Malaysia as the strategic gateway to ASEAN’s digital economy — connecting global content providers, enterprises, AI innovators and cloud platforms to this high-growth region.
By 2030, we aim to offer an integrated digital infrastructure platform that combines sustainable AI-ready data centers, dynamic edge services, advanced digital infrastructure, and platform-based services including CPaaS, connectivity marketplace and more.
We are laying the groundwork for a robust digital infrastructure — where hyperscalers, enterprises, technology innovators can scale effortlessly across Southeast Asia with low latency, regulatory compliance, and energy-efficient infrastructure. Our expanding submarine cable assets, cross-border terrestrial links, and GPU-as-a-Service platform reflect that roadmap in action.
Through strategic collaboration with global and regional partners — including hyperscalers, OTTs, carriers, and technology innovators — we’re bridging ecosystems by bringing world-class technologies closer to local markets, while also enabling homegrown solutions to scale and thrive on the global stage.
