Grab started life in Malaysia as a taxi-booking app. Fourteen years on, it is heading back to its birthplace with a far heavier load: AI data centres.
SoftBank Group and Grab Holdings have signed joint development agreements with Petroleum Sarawak (PETROS), the Sarawak state oil and gas company, to build AI infrastructure across Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. The initial seed capital is US$1.85 billion: US$1 billion from SoftBank, US$750 million from Grab and US$100 million from PETROS.
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The long-term target is five gigawatts or more of AI compute, which is where the maths gets interesting. Industry estimates routinely put the all-in cost of a single gigawatt of AI capacity, chips included, in the tens of billions of US dollars. The seed cheque, in other words, is a down payment on a project whose final bill nobody has published.
From a Kuching handshake to binding cheques
A month ago, this was a statement of intent. In October, the three parties signed a framework agreement in Kuching to explore an AI platform in Sarawak, with no capital attached. The new agreements, the companies say, carry binding development and funding obligations.
Binding, with caveats. The joint venture entities do not yet exist, and each party’s investment terms still hinge on definitive agreements, due diligence, regulatory approvals, and securing land, affordable power, connectivity and contracted customers. Money will be released in stages, tied to development and customer milestones. The risk disclosures run longer than the announcement.
The two projects are built differently. In Sarawak, SoftBank is the majority partner, putting up US$800 million of the US$1 billion initial investment, with Grab and PETROS adding US$100 million each. Grab holds an option to raise its stake, diluting SoftBank, which would still keep control.
On the peninsula, the roles flip. Grab is the founding shareholder with US$650 million of the US$850 million seed, SoftBank adds US$200 million, and Grab leads development. Further growth is meant to come from third-party equity and non-recourse project financing, debt repaid from the project’s own cash flows rather than its sponsors’ balance sheets. The companies have not said where on the peninsula the facilities will sit, a notable silence given how Johor has absorbed much of the region’s data centre spillover, and the scrutiny that came with it.
A superapp takes on a power-hungry side hustle
For Grab, US$750 million is a hefty commitment for a business whose bread and butter is rides, meals and, increasingly, loans. Its third-quarter results showed net profit of just US$18 million against a record Adjusted EBITDA of US$237 million, while gross cash liquidity slipped to US$7.1 billion as buybacks drew on the pile.
Grab is also on the hook for its US$1.49 billion deal for 60 per cent of Atome Financial. Add compute to the list and its capital now chases driver incentives, a fast-growing loan book, share repurchases and data centres. Investors will want to know which gets priority when cash tightens.
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Grab’s case is that it needs the compute itself, to speed up localised AI products for its users. Co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan will oversee both projects while continuing to run Grab, with dedicated teams handling day-to-day operations. Grab’s board has approved the arrangement. Still, running a Nasdaq-listed superapp and two infrastructure ventures is a heavy load for one executive, and the overlap invites related-party questions: Grab will be shareholder, likely customer and, through its CEO, steward.
SoftBank, one of Grab’s longest-standing backers, has sweetened the deal by agreeing in principle to a five-year lock-up on Grab shares held directly by a SoftBank entity, subject to customary exceptions. Lock-ups rarely feature in infrastructure announcements. This one reads as a signal that the partnership is as much about cementing a shareholder relationship as about megawatts.
Malaysia’s compute queue keeps getting longer
The consortium joins a crowded line. Just last week, Google committed US$15 billion to Malaysian digital infrastructure across 2027 and 2028. Microsoft has pledged US$2.2 billion, AWS about US$6.2 billion through 2037, and Oracle US$6.5 billion for a public cloud region. Regionally, AI infrastructure dealmaking hit a record this year as Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand chase the same capacity.
What sets this consortium apart is its business model. Hyperscalers build for their own clouds; SoftBank and Grab plan to build capacity and then court hyperscalers as tenants, alongside governments, multinationals and small businesses. That makes demand the central risk. Without signed customers, five gigawatts is a forecast, not a facility.
The demand case leans on the e-Conomy SEA 2026 report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, which puts per capita AI usage in the region’s six largest economies at about a tenth of US levels, with usage projected to grow up to 60-fold by 2030. Projections of that magnitude have a habit of being revised.
Sarawak’s gas, and the numbers nobody gave
Sarawak’s pull is energy. PETROS brings power supply and local supply chain links, and the project is pitched as serving both the state’s Post COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030 and Putrajaya’s AI Nation 2030 plan. The companies promise facilities that follow Malaysia’s renewable energy guidelines and use designs that cut water use and reliance on local grids.
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They did not say how much power or water the sites will draw, or how much of that power will come from gas. Google, by contrast, pledged last week to pay its own electricity bill and fund lower household tariffs near its campuses. The communities living beside Malaysia’s next server halls will want similar numbers.
The promised high-value jobs in engineering, design and technical fields, plus talk of advanced manufacturing, also arrive without figures. Malaysia wants 300,000 AI jobs by 2030, yet data centres are famously lean to run once built.
For now, Malaysia gets another blockbuster headline and Grab gets a seat at the infrastructure table. Whether this becomes five gigawatts or a well-funded pilot will be decided by the milestones buried in the fine print.
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