GCL ET Jajaki Opportunity to Open AI Data Center in Indonesia

JAKARTA - Chinese renewable energy company GCL Energy Technology or GCL ET is exploring the opportunity to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) data center in Indonesia as part of the company's expansion strategy in Southeast Asia.

"Southeast Asia is one of the main regions in GCL ET's AI data center international strategy, especially Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand," said "Head of Strategic Development Center GCL Energy Technology" Fanzhong Zeng in a written statement to ANTARA, in Beijing, Monday (29/6).

Fanzhong said Indonesia was one of the markets that received his company's attention, in addition to Malaysia and Thailand, because of its proximity to Singapore, the growth of the digital economy, and the potential of supporting energy resources.

According to him, Singapore's position as a digital infrastructure and data center in Asia has encouraged the development of new projects in neighboring countries, including Indonesia, given the limitations on land and electricity capacity in Singapore.

Fanzhong revealed that the company, which is headquartered in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is actively exploring AI data center business opportunities in Malaysia and Indonesia with local partners to support the development of the industry.

The opportunity to open an AI data center, said Fanzhong, is not only related to computing needs, but also to the availability of stable, green, and efficient energy.

"Each market has a different energy structure, customer needs, and industrial ecosystem. Therefore, we will not just copy the same model, but work with local partners to find a cooperation model that suits local market conditions," he said again.

GCL ET, said Fanzhong, is developing integrated solutions for AI data center projects through an approach that combines wind energy, solar energy, energy storage, gas plants, and computing infrastructure in one system.

Fanzhong said the approach is aimed at addressing the challenges of developing AI data centers, especially in regions where the capacity of the electrical network has not always been able to support the needs of large-scale data centers quickly.

According to him, global AI growth is increasing the need for computing power. Therefore, companies see a closer relationship between energy and computing.

"The current wave of AI is in line with our strategy to integrate energy and computing power," said Fanzhong again.

In addition, there are two main directions in the energy and computing power integration strategy, namely, first, "powering computing" where GCL ET utilizes its capabilities in the fields of energy generation, energy management, and electricity trading to provide cheaper, reliable, and environmentally friendly energy solutions for AI data centers.

The second direction is "empowering energy with AI", namely the use of AI to increase the efficiency of the energy sector, including in the management of renewable energy plants, electric vehicle charging stations, electricity trading systems, to energy load regulation.

"By combining these two approaches, we are building a closed ecosystem between energy and computing power," he said.

GCL ET has since 2023 started investing in computing power services worth around 800 million RMB (about Rp2.1 trillion), including for AI computing infrastructure based on NVIDIA A800 and H800 systems.

GCL ET is indeed previously known as an energy investment and services company. However, the company is now expanding its business scope to become a technology-based service provider that integrates energy, computing, and electricity trading.