At a glance
Singapore AI cloud company Aolani signed non-binding letters of intent on 19 October 2026 for up to 500MW of AI data centre capacity across several Malaysian sites, with the first due online in the second half of 2027.
Of the single-buyer AI capacity deals with a disclosed size that Certified Strategic has tracked across Asia Pacific since January 2025, only CDC's 555MW contract in Australia is larger. Anthropic's reported talks with NTT Data in Osaka carry the same headline figure.
Aolani expects to run more than 48,000 GPUs and 100MW after its next deployment in early 2027, so the order is about five times its own fleet.
Malaysia had 1.04GW of data centre capacity under construction in the first half of 2026, according to Cushman & Wakefield, and Aolani's order equals about half of it.
Anthropic's tender for at least 1.4GW of Australian capacity, reported in July 2026, wants 1GW running by the end of 2027.
Aolani, a Singapore-founded company that rents NVIDIA GPU computing power to AI developers, signed letters of intent on 19 October 2026 for up to 500MW of AI data centre capacity in Malaysia. Companies like Aolani are known in the industry as neoclouds, and they compete with hyperscalers and AI labs for the same data centre space in Malaysia and Australia.
Of the single-buyer AI capacity deals with a disclosed size that Certified Strategic has tracked across Asia Pacific since January 2025, only one is larger: CDC Data Centres' 555MW contract with a US customer in Australia. The other buyers at this scale are DayOne's first hyperscale customer in Johor and Anthropic. Aolani, by its own forecast, will run about 100MW once its next GPUs arrive in early 2027.
Aolani is asking for about five times the capacity it runs, in markets where almost all finished data centre space is rented, so the 500MW is likely to arrive in stages from late 2027 into 2028 and beyond.
Source: CDC, Aolani, Nikkei via Reuters, DayOne F-1, Bitdeer, Tata. Ranked on contracted or negotiated capacity for one buyer, excluding campus sizes and options. Each company measures capacity its own way.
CDC signed for 555MW in Australia in May 2026
CDC signed a 30-year contract for 555MW in May 2026 with an unnamed United States customer it described as "high-end investment grade", for delivery across campuses under development in its 2028 and 2029 financial years.
In Japan, NTT Data is in final talks to build a data centre in Osaka for Anthropic with power intake of up to 500MW, the Nikkei reported on 13 October 2026, via Reuters. The two companies aim to sign by 31 March 2027 and could start partial operation in 2028.
DayOne's US listing prospectus shows its first Johor customer growing from a 64MW commitment in March 2023 to 448MW under contract by September 2026. The nearest neocloud deal in the chart is Bitdeer AI's, which signed for 127MW across two Malaysian data centres in October 2026, taking its secured capacity in Malaysia to about 225MW across three campuses. OpenAI's partnership with Tata Consultancy Services, announced on 19 February 2026, starts at 100MW in TCS's HyperVault data centres in India, with an option to scale to 1GW.
Aolani expects to run about 100MW of its own capacity in 2027
Aolani was founded in Singapore in 2023 and has been an NVIDIA Cloud Partner since that year. Chief executive Nicholas Chia began his career in capital markets at Citi and held senior roles at Standard Chartered, OCBC and CLSA, according to Aolani.
On 21 September 2026 Aolani announced a compute agreement with NVIDIA to deploy 22,000 GPUs in Malaysia and the Philippines in early 2027, which will take it to more than 48,000 GPUs and more than 100MW. The deal runs on a revenue-sharing and credit-support model that Aolani said would "unlock financing".
At Aolani's ratio of about 480 GPUs a megawatt, 500MW would hold roughly 240,000 GPUs, a Certified Strategic estimate. Newer NVIDIA chips draw more power each, so a fleet bought later would hold fewer GPUs per megawatt.
The letters of intent are non-binding and subject to final agreements, Aolani said. Together with about 80MW it committed in 2026, the letters would take Aolani to up to 580MW of committed capacity in Malaysia by 2027. The company says the space will serve global hyperscalers and AI companies.
Malaysia had 1.04GW under construction in the first half of 2026
Johor, Malaysia's main data centre hub, had 0.7 per cent of its operating rented space vacant, according to property consultancy Knight Frank's Data Centre Atlas 2026. The figure covers finished buildings only, and Aolani's letters are for space still under construction.
Malaysia had 1.04GW of capacity under construction in the first half of 2026, more than any other Southeast Asian country, and Johor's rose 91 per cent to 602MW, Cushman & Wakefield found, as Data Center Knowledge reported. "New supply is being absorbed quickly, with a growing share of capacity pre-leased before delivery," said Pritesh Swamy, head of research and consulting for Cushman & Wakefield's Asia Pacific data centre group.
Johor's developers have delivered first stages in about a year. Princeton Digital Group says it delivered the first 52MW of its JH1 campus in 12 months, and DayOne delivered its first 71MW in about 14 months. Tenaga Nasional, the state power utility, set a 12-month target for connecting data centres in 2023, down from 36 to 48 months.
Aolani's order equals about half of the 1.04GW under construction. Builds of 12 to 14 months would put its first capacity within the second-half 2027 target.
Anthropic asked Australian developers for at least 1.4GW
Anthropic's Australian request for proposals sought at least 1.4GW of capacity, with at least 1GW running by the end of 2027, the Australian Financial Review reported on 5 July 2026. Anthropic has since leased the first stage of Zerra DC's Western Downs campus in Queensland.
Anthropic was also in advanced talks to anchor AirTrunk's Kurri Kurri campus in the Hunter, the AFR reported on 22 September 2026. The NSW planning portal now lists the campus at 550.5MW, up from the 540MW reported then, with its environmental impact statement on exhibition until 11 November.
Anthropic is the customer behind DigiCo's 71MW, 15-year contract at its SYD1 data centre in Ultimo, on the edge of the Sydney CBD, the AFR reported on 16 October 2026. DigiCo told the ASX on 15 October that the buyer was a global technology firm with investment-grade credit support, and that the first 10MW would be energised late in its 2027 financial year, with the rest delivered over the following year.
Australian customers had leased 2.44GW of capacity before construction by 30 June 2026, 61 per cent of everything planned, according to Cushman & Wakefield. About 1.7GW of announced capacity is scheduled to open in Australia in 2027 and another 1.3GW in 2028, according to Certified Strategic's guide to new capacity, although several of those figures are full campus sizes that will be built over years.
Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus is building neocloud capacity in the same region, including a 360MW campus at Batam in Indonesia with DayOne, and has signed Thinking Machines Lab as anchor customer for its AI cloud region in Asia.
Foreign tenants in Australia can face investment review
A foreign neocloud such as Aolani leasing Australian capacity could face the same review as Anthropic, whose Western Downs lease remains subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval, Capacity reported on 16 September 2026.
TikTok was seeking to build a 100MW data centre in New South Wales or Victoria and was still waiting for the board's approval, the AFR reported on 1 December 2025, after hiring lobbying firm Anacta Strategies. Law firm Holding Redlich wrote on 29 September 2026 that the project had reportedly faced more than a year of review.
Foreign investors generally need to notify the Treasurer before taking a direct interest, usually 10 per cent or more, in a data centre business that handles defence, government or other business-critical data, Holding Redlich notes. Data centres can also be regulated as critical infrastructure under the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018, and the Treasurer holds last-resort powers to impose conditions or require a sale after an investment is approved.
What to watch
Aolani's final agreements. Signed contracts will name the developers, sites and states behind the 500MW, and show how much of it is in buildings under construction.
Aolani's financing. A debt or equity raise sized against the order would show how much of the 500MW Aolani plans to fill with its own GPUs.
Anthropic's next contracts. A signed Osaka agreement by 31 March 2027, and further Australian leases, would show whether AI labs or neoclouds are taking the region's largest buildings.
Washington's rules on rented computing power. The US Commerce Department has opened a review of where Chinese AI firms rent NVIDIA computing power offshore, Bloomberg reported on 7 August 2026. Commerce is also drafting a rule to stop that renting in third countries, tech publication The Information reported in late August 2026, though export lawyers said Commerce likely lacks the authority without new law.
TikTok's Australian application. A decision would show how the board treats a Chinese-owned platform building its own Australian data centre.