07/05/2026

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BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | MAY 7, 2026

Snowflake integrates ILMU into its platform

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has facilitated more than RM450 million in potential opportunities at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, one of Asia’s leading startup and innovation platforms. SusHi Tech Tokyo fosters collaboration among startups, corporates and ecosystem players to drive innovation in addressing global urban challenges, a statement said yesterday. MDEC also facilitated a MoU exchange between Malaysian company CitySage Sdn Bhd and Japan-based Eight Knot Inc to explore smart water mobility applications, including the identification of high potential maritime routes aligned with coastal development and infrastructure planning. The CitySage-Eight Knot collaboration is part of a broader export pipeline facilitated by MDEC, reflecting strong global demand for Malaysian digital and sustainability driven solutions across artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and autonomous systems, urban resilience and climate technology, food technology, GovTech and smart cities. MDEC CEO Anuar Fariz Fadzil said its participation at the event reflects MDEC’s continued efforts to expand global market access for Malaysian technology companies. “The partnerships and export opportunities facilitated through this platform demonstrate the readiness of Malaysian digital solutions to scale internationally, as we build a future ready, AI-driven digital economy by 2030,” he said. The collaboration marks a significant step in Malaysia-Japan cooperation in smart mobility solutions. Underscoring the competitiveness of Malaysian companies via MDEC’s global engagement platforms, Malaysian material science and agritech company Qarbotech Sdn Bhd won the grand prize at the SusHi Tech Challenge 2026 Global Pitch Competition. – Bernama MDEC unlocks RM450m potential at SusHi Tech Tokyo

KUALA LUMPUR: RT Pastry Holdings Bhd, a Malaysian bakery group, yesterday entered into an underwriting agreement with KAF Investment Bank Bhd (KAF IB) in preparation for its initial public offering (IPO) on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd. The IPO exercise involves a public issue of 91,542,000 new ordinary shares (Issue Shares), representing approximately 27% of the company’s enlarged issued share capital. KAF IB will act as the principal adviser, sponsor, underwriter, and placement agent for the exercise. The 91,542,000 Issue Shares will be KUALA LUMPUR: Snowflake, an AI data cloud company, has integrated ILMU – Malaysia’s homegrown sovereign large language model (LLM) developed by YTL Labs – into its platform, enabling organisations in Malaysia to run generative AI on governed enterprise data through Snowflake’s secure governance framework. The integration is supported by Snowflake’s availability on the AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) region, enabling secure, in-country deploy ment of enterprise AI capabilities. Snowflake is among the first global AI and data cloud providers to support integration with a locally developed sovereign LLM within a fully in-country deployment - enabling enterprises to accelerate AI adoption while meeting stringent data governance and residency requirements. The integration of ILMU provides enterprises with access to a sovereign LLM specifically trained on Malaysian linguistic nuances and cultural contexts. This enhances Snowflake’s AI capabilities with improved understanding of Bahasa Melayu, Manglish, and regional dialects, enabling more accurate interpretation of locally contextualised enterprise data. This allows organisations to unlock greater value from their data by building AI-driven applications that are more relevant, accurate, and locally attuned -without compromising performance or scalability. By enabling ILMU to operate via

money, seeking personalised financial advice to seamless customer support, all while ensuring the highest standards of data residency and governance. One of these early adopters is property developer S P Setia Bhd (Setia), which recently won a Malaysia Technology Excellence Award for its AI innovations in the real estate space including AI sales agents and AI-visioning based inspection solutions. Setia president and CEO Datuk Zaini Yusoff said this integration represents a strategic milestone in how they elevate the property journey through personalisation and innovation. “By leveraging Snowflake’s local data infrastructure and AI capabilities built for the Malaysian market, we look forward to continuously improving how we engage with our customers, in language that feels natural and familiar across every touchpoint – from home discovery to property management, while reinforcing the trust that underpins our long-standing leadership in the industry,” he added. beginnings to becoming a household name, our focus has always been on quality and innovation. This IPO will provide us with the platform to further expand our retail network and upgrade our manufacturing capabilities, ensuring we continue to deliver the ‘heart’ behind every pastry to our loyal customers and new investors alike.” The proceeds from the IPO are earmarked for among others, the opening of new outlets, purchase of new machinery and equipment, and repayment of bank borrowings, which will support the group’s long-term growth and operational efficiency.

o Move to include Malaysia’s homegrown sovereign large language model set to accelerate enterprise adoption of AI

RT Pastry. The group’s revenue grew from RM54.7 million in financial year ended (FYE) Dec 31, 2022 to approximately RM60.3 million in FYE Dec 31, 2024, driven largely by its core pastry and bakery segments. During this same period, the group’s profit before tax showed steady improvement, rising from RM7.9 million to RM8.1 million, reflecting enhanced operational leverage and improved profitability across its business divisions. Executive director and group CEO Lu Chun-Neng said, “Today’s signing marks a monumental milestone in RT Pastry’s journey. From our humble Sovereign LLM with the Snowflake environment represents a significant milestone in localising high-performance AI. “At YTL AI Labs, our focus has been on providing the sovereign infrastructure necessary to power these workloads. By enabling seamless access to Malaysia’s national language model on a secure, global platform like Snowflake, we are ensuring that Malaysian enterprises can deploy AI solutions that are culturally relevant, legally compliant, and hosted in Malaysia.” Ryt Bank chief technology officer Nic Ngoo said with YTL AI Lab’s ILMU and Snowflake in country deployment, their customers can bank using natural, culturally nuanced language for everything from transferring

application by the Malaysian public; 6,780,900 for application by eligible employees of the group; 42,381,000 via private placement to identified Bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry of Malaysia; and 25,420,100 via private placement to institutional and selected investors. RT Pastry specialises in the manufacturing and retail of premium pastry and bakery products. As of the latest practicable date of Sept 1, 2025, the group owns and operates 17 outlets located throughout the Klang Valley under its trade and brand name Snowflake’s governed environment, sensitive data remains securely managed under Snowflake’s established security framework. This allows organisations to adopt AI while ensuring proprietary data stays within national borders and under full governance controls. This is especially critical for regulated industries such as the public sector, financial services, telecommunications, and retail, where data governance and residency are paramount. “With Malaysia’s RM2 billion Sovereign AI Cloud commitment underscoring data localisation as a national priority, organisations need AI solutions they can trust to keep their data on shore,” said Snowflake Asean regional vice president Satchit Joglekar. YTL AI Labs CEO Foong Chee Mun said the integration of ILMU

RT Pastry inks deal with KAF IB for ACE Market IPO allocated as: 16,960,000 for

Education retains its importance in the Malaysian landscape for parents, students and stakeholders. The changes are fast paced with new developments in new fields of study such as cybersecurity, data protection, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning in education, digital education and artificial Intelligence. Leading the way are universities, who are invited to showcase their latest programmes, curriculum and content in our Education Focus for 2026.

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