VCI Global Launches World's First NVIDIA Blackwell-Powered AI Lounge

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – January 09, 2026 – VCI Global Limited (NASDAQ: VCIG) has officially announced that its pioneering Enterprise AI GPU Lounge in Kuala Lumpur is now operational, marking a significant development in the race to make cutting-edge artificial intelligence more accessible. Through its AI subsidiary, V Gallant Limited, the company is introducing what it calls the world's first co-working data center powered by NVIDIA's next-generation Blackwell GPU architecture, with enterprise workloads expected to commence by the end of this month.

The facility introduces an innovative “asset-light” model, designed to dismantle the steep financial barriers that have historically hindered widespread enterprise AI adoption. By offering on-demand, subscription-based access to high-performance computing, VCI Global aims to reshape how corporations, regulated industries, and government bodies deploy and scale their AI initiatives.

A New Model for Enterprise AI Access

The primary obstacle for many organizations venturing into advanced AI has been the prohibitive capital expenditure (CAPEX) required to build, operate, and maintain state-of-the-art GPU infrastructure. The cost of acquiring server racks, ensuring adequate power and cooling, and hiring specialized talent can run into millions of dollars, placing advanced AI capabilities out of reach for all but the largest tech giants.

VCI Global's AI GPU Lounge directly confronts this challenge by converting AI infrastructure from a massive upfront investment into a predictable operating expense (OPEX). Clients can subscribe to the service and scale their compute resources based on real-time demand, a flexible model that accelerates deployment timelines from months or years to mere days. This usage-driven approach not only preserves capital but also provides enterprises with the agility needed to innovate in the fast-moving AI landscape.

Positioned as a co-working data center, the lounge provides a collaborative environment where organizations can leverage top-tier hardware without the burdens of ownership. This model could prove particularly attractive to multinational corporations needing a compliant presence in Southeast Asia, financial institutions with strict regulatory requirements, and government agencies exploring sovereign AI capabilities.

Powering the Future with Blackwell and Intelli-X

At the heart of the new facility is NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU architecture, the successor to the wildly successful Hopper platform. These GPUs are engineered to deliver substantial performance gains for compute-intensive tasks, particularly the inference workloads of large language models (LLMs) and complex AI training. By being among the first to offer enterprise access to this technology, VCI Global positions its clients at the forefront of AI development.

Managing the operations is V Gallant’s proprietary Intelli-X™ Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). A key feature of this platform is its secure, zero-data-retention architecture. In an era of heightened concerns over data privacy and digital sovereignty, this design is critical. The platform ensures that no client data is stored permanently on the system, a feature designed to meet the stringent compliance and privacy mandates of regulated sectors like finance and healthcare, as well as government-related deployments in Malaysia and the broader region.

The lounge itself is located within a green-certified facility, also serving as an IDEX (Innovation & Data Exchange) Hub. This concept envisions an integrated ecosystem where human experts and machine intelligence can work in tandem, creating a blueprint for VCI Global's planned expansion of similar infrastructure hubs.

Kuala Lumpur's Bid for AI Supremacy

The launch of the AI GPU Lounge is a significant move in establishing Kuala Lumpur as a burgeoning hub for artificial intelligence in Southeast Asia. The region is witnessing a surge in AI investment, and Malaysia is emerging as a key contender. The global AI infrastructure market, according to Mordor Intelligence, is projected to swell from US$87.6 billion in 2025 to nearly US$197.6 billion by 2030, and VCI Global is positioning itself to capture a piece of this explosive growth.

However, VCI Global is not alone in its ambition. Local conglomerate YTL Power International has also announced plans to build Malaysia’s first AI supercomputer, leveraging the powerful NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip. Hosted by YTL Cloud, this massive project is slated to go live in the third quarter of 2025 and is intended to power Malaysia's sovereign AI development. While YTL's project appears focused on a large-scale cloud service and national AI model, VCI Global's “co-working lounge” offers a different, more flexible point of entry for individual enterprises, suggesting a dynamic and competitive ecosystem is rapidly forming within the country.

From Virtual Models to Physical AI

Beyond providing compute power for LLMs and data analytics, the AI GPU Lounge serves a more profound, long-term strategic purpose for VCI Global. The company has designated the facility as a foundational milestone in its broader “Physical AI” strategy. This ambitious vision extends beyond the digital realm and into the tangible world of industrial automation and intelligent systems.

According to the company’s 2026 development roadmap, the lounge is intended to become a critical hub for the testing, orchestration, and command-and-control of robotics, autonomous systems, and drone technologies. By integrating its high-performance compute infrastructure with real-world hardware, VCI Global aims to enable the practical deployment of AI in factories, logistics, and smart city applications.

“The rapid growth of AI has outpaced enterprise access to secure, high-performance physical infrastructure,” said Dr. Chan Wai Mun, Chief Operating Officer of V Gallant, in the company's announcement. “With the AI GPU Lounge entering operational readiness, we are introducing a scalable and capital-efficient platform that enables enterprises to deploy advanced AI capabilities without the traditional burden of infrastructure ownership. This marks an important step as we advance toward Physical AI and intelligent automation use cases.”

This strategy is a high-stakes gamble for VCI Global, a NASDAQ-listed company with a diverse portfolio spanning fintech, real estate, and capital market consultancy. The announcement sent its stock soaring over 40%, a significant vote of confidence from the market. However, this surge followed a period where the stock had lost nearly all its value over the past year, highlighting the volatile nature of its ambitious ventures. The AI Lounge represents a focused, potentially transformative bet that could redefine the company's trajectory and solidify Malaysia's role in the next wave of technological innovation.