Aolani, a Singapore-founded AI cloud company, has signed a strategic compute collaboration with NVIDIA to expand AI factory infrastructure across Southeast Asia. The agreement, announced on September 21, 2026, is the first of its scale for a Southeast Asian-founded company and is set to significantly elevate the region's profile in the global AI ecosystem. By combining Aolani's capabilities with NVIDIA's technology, the collaboration aims to unlock financing that will accelerate and democratize access to AI compute for global AI natives, sovereigns, local enterprises, and SMEs.
The collaboration brings Aolani's total AI factory capacity to more than 100 megawatts (MW), with 22,000 GPUs expected to be deployed across two AI factories in Malaysia and the Philippines in early 2027. This will bring Aolani's total deployment to over 48,000 GPUs. As an NVIDIA Cloud Partner since 2023, Aolani will deploy NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs, a leading AI system designed to help organizations build and scale advanced AI workloads today.
A revenue-sharing and credit-support model will align infrastructure deployment with customer demand, broadening access to large-scale accelerated computing while giving Aolani a capital-efficient path to scale its AI factories across the region. This approach is expected to lower barriers to entry for startups, developers, and institutions seeking to leverage AI.
Southeast Asia is one of the most robust AI markets in the world, with AI adoption rates among companies demonstrating stronger momentum than the global average, according to McKinsey & Company. More than US$50 billion has been invested by global hyperscalers in AI-ready data centers and cloud infrastructure, as reported by the Singapore Economic Development Board, underscoring the region's emergence as a global arena for cloud and AI innovation. While Malaysia has established itself as a premier AI factory hub, the Philippines represents a high-potential emerging market. Aolani's deployment there is expected to be among the first large-scale AI infrastructure platforms in the country, broadening access to advanced AI compute and supporting essential AI infrastructure buildout in Asia.
Nicholas Chia, Chief Executive Officer at Aolani, said: "This collaboration with NVIDIA marks a defining moment in Aolani's mission to deliver world-class AI compute at the speed that matches the pace of AI development, and on infrastructure that is compliant, accountable, and trusted to perform. Southeast Asia is rapidly emerging as a key global node for the next wave of global AI buildout, and we are well-positioned to lead this. We are excited to work with new partners and customers to build the Southeast Asian AI ecosystem and cement the region's central role in the global AI landscape."
The implications for business and technology leaders are significant. The expanded AI factory capacity will provide faster, more reliable access to NVIDIA's most advanced GPUs, enabling companies to train larger models and deploy AI applications at scale. For Southeast Asian enterprises and SMEs, this means reduced reliance on distant cloud providers and improved data sovereignty. The collaboration also positions the region as a critical player in the global AI supply chain, potentially attracting further investment and talent. As AI adoption accelerates, Aolani's capital-efficient model could serve as a blueprint for other regional providers seeking to scale infrastructure without prohibitive upfront costs.
