IP ServerOne Supports the Next Generation of AI Builders in Sarawak Through BorNEO HackWknd 2026

From UNIMAS to Sarawak’s growing AI ecosystem, IP ServerOne supports ASEAN student innovation while bringing cloud and GPU infrastructure closer to home.

An AI idea can start with a simple question: What if we could solve this problem differently?

At BorNEO HackWknd 2026, university students from across ASEAN came together at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in Sarawak to explore that question, turning real-world problems into ideas, prototypes and AI-powered solutions.

Hosted by UNIMAS, the hackathon was built around “The Role of AI in ASEAN Social Impact,” encouraging participants to look beyond technology itself and consider how AI could create meaningful change in areas that affect people and communities. The event brought together students for collaboration, cross-cultural learning and rapid prototyping, with challenges inspired by ASEAN priorities and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

For IP ServerOne, supporting BorNEO HackWknd was about more than supporting a technology event. It was an opportunity to contribute to the people, ideas and ecosystem shaping Sarawak’s digital future.

Because great ideas need more than talent to become real.

From an Idea to a Working Solution

BorNEO HackWknd was designed as a journey rather than a single weekend of coding.

The preliminary hacking phase took place online from February 16 to March 13, 2026, giving teams time to develop their ideas, collaborate across borders and refine their solutions. The finalists then came together at UNIMAS on May 9 and 10 for a 24-hour hacking and pitching session.

The experience pushed participants to move quickly from identifying a problem to thinking about how technology could help solve it.

And the problems were not simply technical exercises.

The challenges explored areas such as education, digital inclusion, community development, sustainability and resilience. Participants were encouraged to understand the people and problems behind their ideas before deciding where AI could add value.

That approach matters.

Building a meaningful AI solution requires more than knowing how to use an AI tool. It requires curiosity, problem-solving, collaboration and the willingness to experiment. It also requires access to the technology and computing resources needed to take an idea beyond a prototype.

This is where the connection between people and infrastructure becomes important.

IP ServerOne provides cloud and AI infrastructure in Sarawak through NovaCloud and NovaGPU, giving businesses, developers and organizations local options for running digital and AI workloads.

Where AI Talent Meets Infrastructure

For an idea developed at a hackathon to become a working application, someone eventually needs somewhere to build, test, deploy and scale it.

That might mean cloud computing for an application or database. It might mean GPU computing for an AI model. It might mean infrastructure that allows a team to experiment without first having to build and maintain its own hardware.

This is the space IP ServerOne has been building in Sarawak.

NovaCloud, IP ServerOne’s public cloud platform, is now available in Sarawak. It gives businesses, developers and organizations access to scalable, pay-per-use cloud infrastructure hosted in Malaysia for websites, applications and other workloads.

For AI and machine learning workloads that require more specialized computing power, NovaGPU is also now available in Sarawak.

NovaGPU provides dedicated, non-shared NVIDIA GPUs for workloads such as AI development, model training, inference, generative AI, large language models, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and high-performance computing. Its Malaysia-hosted infrastructure gives organizations a local option for running AI workloads that require dedicated GPU computing.

Together, these platforms address two different but increasingly connected needs: cloud infrastructure for digital workloads and GPU infrastructure for AI workloads.

In simple terms, it is not only about giving people the opportunity to learn how to build.

It is about making sure they have somewhere to build.

Why Sarawak Matters

That is an important part of why Sarawak matters to IP ServerOne.

Digital innovation should not be limited by geography. Talent can come from anywhere, and the ideas emerging from universities, businesses and developer communities in Sarawak can address challenges locally, across Malaysia and beyond.

BorNEO HackWknd showed what that can look like in practice.

Students from across ASEAN came to Sarawak to collaborate, develop prototypes and compete in an AI-focused hackathon hosted by UNIMAS. According to UNIMAS, the physical finals brought together participants from seven ASEAN countries, while the event received registrations from 10 ASEAN countries overall.

The hackathon also brought different parts of the digital ecosystem together. UNIMAS provided the academic and innovation environment, while organizations such as the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) supported the event alongside other sponsors.

For the students taking part, it was an opportunity to gain hands-on experience and build connections beyond their own campuses and countries.

For Sarawak, it was another example of how the state can serve as a place where technology talent, education and innovation come together.

And for IP ServerOne, supporting that ecosystem goes hand in hand with making cloud and AI infrastructure more accessible within the state.

What Happens After the Hackathon?

A hackathon ends when the clock runs out.

The learning does not.

Participants leave with more than a prototype. They leave having experienced what it takes to work with a team, understand a problem, make decisions under pressure and turn an idea into something that can be demonstrated.

Some projects may continue as research. Others may become startups, products or future opportunities. For many participants, the experience may simply become the foundation for what they build next.

That next step is where infrastructure becomes practical.

A student developing an application can start with cloud computing resources.

A developer experimenting with an AI model can use GPU infrastructure without immediately investing in dedicated hardware.

A business building a new digital service can deploy it on cloud infrastructure hosted closer to its users.

A research team exploring AI can access specialized computing resources as its requirements grow.

These may sound like infrastructure decisions, but behind each one is a person trying to build something.

And making those resources available locally can help reduce one more barrier between an idea and its next stage.

Building Sarawak’s Digital Future, Closer to Home

For IP ServerOne, supporting BorNEO HackWknd is part of a broader commitment to the growth of Malaysia’s digital ecosystem, including Sarawak.

That commitment starts with people.

It means supporting opportunities for students to learn by building. It means working alongside universities and organizations that create spaces for innovation. And it means continuing to invest in the cloud and AI infrastructure that businesses, developers, researchers and future technology builders need.

With NovaCloud and NovaGPU now available in Sarawak, IP ServerOne is helping bring that infrastructure closer to the people who may use it to build what comes next.

Because Sarawak’s digital future is not only about adopting technology.

It is about creating the talent, opportunities and infrastructure to build with it.

The next AI solution from Sarawak could begin as a student’s idea at a hackathon.

What happens after that idea takes shape may be even more exciting.

Because when people have the opportunity to build, and the infrastructure to keep building, an idea can go much further than the room where it started.

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