14/08/2026

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BIZ & FINANCE

Malaysian Paper

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The BESS solution in meeting data centres’ hunger for power

BIZ & FINANCE PMB Investment: RM6.2m income

distributions for two funds

PETALING JAYA: PMB Investment Bhd, an Islamic fund management company under Pelaburan Mara Bhd, announced income distri butions for two of its funds for the financial year ended July 31, 2026, totalling about RM6.2 million. PMB Shariah Aggressive Fund declared an income distribution of 3.03 sen per unit, amounting to a total gross distribution of RM5,576,918.21. The fund’s net asset value (NAV) per unit will adjust from RM0.4587 to RM0.4284 following the distribution, with an ex-date of July 31, 2026 and reinvestment date of Aug 3, 2026. This represents a yield of 7% or 6.01% returns. PMB Shariah Small-Cap Fund declared an income distribution of 3.38 sen per unit, totalling RM631,108.83 in gross distri butions. The NAV per unit before the distribution stood at RM0.6269, adjusting to RM0.5931 post distribution, sharing the same ex date of July 31, 2026 and re investment date of Aug 3, 2026. This translates to a yield of 6.00% or 11.23% returns for the year.

land, or even floating solar – we also have to consider what happens when we have too much of it. “This is where BESS comes in. If you have excess solar power, you need a way to store it. Solar is an intermittent source of energy, so batteries can help us manage that supply and make better use of renewable energy,” he said. Looi said batteries can supply power rapidly, be activated almost immediately to provide an alternative supply, and help keep the national grid robust and reliable. “So, this is what we have here. BESS is like a Disneyland for engineers. Because it is designed and built by engineers, for engineers. We walk through the energy path, and you can open the enclosure and see exactly what is inside the energy storage system.” Engineer & Marvex 2026,

Malaysia (IEM) chief consultant for data centre infrastructure Lee Cheng Pay ( pic ) said this initiative is the commitment that the country and the prime minister have made to

our computers and data servers can run at all times. “We also need the right structure. A data centre is not like an office or a house, which is designed mainly for

KUALA LUMPUR: New data centres could consume as much as a third of Malaysia’s entire electricity supply by 2035, according to government projections, up from a mere fraction of that today. According to data, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is committing RM43 billion to modernise Malaysia’s electricity grid, driven by AI and data centre growth. o New facilities could consumeasmuchasa third of country’s entire electricity supply by 2035, government projections show █ BY JOHN GILBERT sunbiz@sundaily.com

strengthen the nation’s international position and prepare for the growth of data centres and AI. “It is very impressive. We now have 4.5 gigawatts of power. 4.5 gigawatts is equivalent to the electricity consumption of about 900,000 houses. “When the country has

people. The equipment and the load in a data centre are increasing day by day. “So, we need a good structural system, fast con struction, high fire safety standards and, of course, strong security,” Lee said. Touching on BESS, chief consultant Alex Looi Tink Huey said that in May 2026,

invested so much to get ready, to strengthen the grid and prepare for data centre investments, having enough power alone does not make a data centre work. “What a data centre needs is a reliable, uninterrupted power supply – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. That is what we are looking at,” Lee told delegates at the Engineer & Marvex 2026 preview session yesterday.

Peninsular Malaysia switched on its very first grid-scale battery, which has a capacity of about 100 megawatts or 400 megawatt-hours. Looi said new data centres require a significant amount of power and that such infrastructure also con sumes substantial amounts of water, particularly for cooling.

CEO Hang Tuah Amin Tajudin said, “These distributions reflect our disciplined investment approach and our commitment to delivering sustainable long-term value for our unitholders ... we remain optimistic about syariah-compliant invest ment opportunities and our research capabilities to deliver sustained value for our unitholders.” Exabytes aims to help 1 million businesses adopt, grow with AI by 2030 Malaysia already has 4.5 gigawatts of data centre capacity, with another 3.7 gigawatts currently under cons truction. To meet that demand without straining the national grid, the battery energy storage system (BESS) will be the positive solution for maintaining a sustained power supply. The Institution of Engineers, He said that when talking about data centres, there is also the issue of heat. In short, if a data centre does not cool down properly, the server racks will stop working. “So, we need a very good and reliable cooling system with high technology to keep all these racks at the right temperature and make sure “So, if we are going to have more and more data centres on our grid and as part of our lifestyle, we need to ensure that this growth is sustainable. “Climate change is real. The weather is getting hotter every year, and even Malaysia’s climate has become increasingly unpredictable. So, we need to introduce more renewable energy. But as we add more and more solar power to our grid – whether rooftop, large-scale on Malaysia’s leading platform for the engineering and HVAC&R (heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and refrigerating) industries, is jointly organised by C.I.S Network Sdn Bhd with The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia for Engineer and the Malaysia Air-Conditioning & Refri geration Association for Marvex. The fifth edition will bring together the engineering and HVAC&R eco system at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from Sept 22 to 25.

point for investment and operational decisions. “More than half of our budgets and allocations are now AI-related. For example, when we look at infra structure, capex and hardware that we are purchasing, it has to be for the AI business first.” The same approach is being applied to workforce development, with the company using its training programmes to equip employees with AI skills and ensure they can work with the technology as it becomes more deeply embedded across the business. Chan said Exabytes is also changing how it approaches recruit ment, with the company first assessing whether AI can perform certain tasks before deciding to hire for or replace a vacant position. However, he stressed that the shift does not mean employees are being made redundant in favour of AI. Instead, existing and new em ployees are being given access to AI tools and training to help them understand and use the technology more effectively, both internally and in serving customers. “For our existing talent and the new talent we are hiring, we will ensure they have access to AI tools and are provided with various AI training and upskilling, so that we understand AI better and can serve our customers better,” Chan said. Exabytes, Chan disclosed, is pi voting from its “Go Digital” strategy to “Grow AI” after 25 years of helping businesses build their digital pre

business grows 10 times. Unfor tunately, it doen’t happen that way,” he said. “But with the right onboarding context and with a clear objective, we would expect, within three to six months of investing or implementing AI, it should at least double up efficiency.” AI could operate around the clock and process data, customer inter actions and historical information at a scale that would be difficult for human workers, potentially improving pro ductivity, targeting and decision making, Chan said. “AI can work 24/7. With the right context, it can also significantly increase the quality of targeting,” he said, adding that AI can help busi nesses scale capabilities more easily than relying solely on replicating human talent. At the summit, Exabytes signed a three-year memorandum of under standing with Nasdaq-listed Aurora Mobile, through its enterprise AI platform GPTBots.ai, to jointly develop AI solutions for businesses across Southeast Asia. The collaboration will combine Exabytes’ cloud infra-structure, managed services and regional cus tomer network with Aurora Mobile’s capabilities in AI agents, knowledge management, workflow automation and AI application development. Chan said cybersecurity will remain a key consideration as businesses increasingly integrate AI into their operations.

█ BY HAYATUN RAZAK sunbiz@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR: Exabytes aims to help one million businesses adopt and grow with artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030, as the digital solutions provider shifts its focus from helping companies go digital to turning AI adoption into measurable business outcomes. Founded in Penang in 2001, the regional digital, cloud and business solutions group, which currently supports more than 160,000 busi nesses, expects Malaysia to account for about 300,000 of the one million businesses targeted, with the remainder coming from other parts of Southeast Asia and potentially other markets, founder and group CEO Chan Kee Siak said. “As a homegrown market, we expect at least the numbers to double up from our existing numbers. Currently, we have 160,000 busi nesses, so ideally by that time, 300,000 businesses will be from Malaysia,” he told reporters at the Exabytes GROW AI Summit 2026 yesterday. Chan said Exabytes has directed more than half of its overall budget and resource allocation towards AI related initiatives as the company makes the technology central to its next phase of growth. He said the shift extends across infrastructure spending, employee training and the development of solutions for customers, with AI increasingly becoming the starting

From left: Exabytes group deputy CEO Eric Foo, Chan, Aurora Mobile founder and CEO Chris Lo, and global sales vice-president Yuan Peng at the memorandum of understanding signing between Exabytes and Aurora Mobile.

be reskilled into account manage ment and customer-facing roles. “In the past, we always had to firefight in terms of hiring fast enough and training fast enough people to handle all these repetitive level-one workloads. But today, because this workload is effectively handled by AI, it actually frees up our level-one executives. We reskill and upskill them to become account managers.” Chan said businesses should not expect AI to be an instant solution to growth, but companies that imple ment it with clear objectives and the right context should see significant productivity gains. “AI is not like a super magician. Today I sign up for AI, tomorrow my

sence, amid a growing need to move AI discussions beyond experi mentation and into practical appli cations. “That is why there are still too many talks out there, but not enough action. The focus now should be on moving beyond theory, presentations and experimentation, and showing businesses how AI can actually be applied to solve specific problems, improve productivity and deliver measurable results,” he said. Chan said Exabytes’ AI agent, Eve, which has been deployed for almost two years, is now able to handle about 80% of the company’s level-one workload, allowing employees pre viously focused on repetitive tasks to