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The deal will see thousands of NVIDIA GPUs (graphics processing units) deployed across 26 data centers in five countries: Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia and the Maldives. The chips will help the data centers crunch massive amounts of information, which will power AI chatbots and other tools that are a vital part of the country’s AI infrastructure.
The partnership comes after the United States last year restricted the sale of certain advanced chips to some Middle Eastern countries over concerns that the technology could be intercepted by China.
Washington has allowed the export of some Nvidia chips to the region, and Nvidia, AMD and Intel have all indicated plans to manufacture lower-performance chips for export to the Chinese market. The restrictions focus on the A100 and H100 chips, not the GPUs (another type of semiconductor) that are at the heart of the deal.
Ooredoo told CNBC that the deal complies with all US regulations and that no new licenses for different chips have been issued as a result of the partnership.
“As a telecommunications company, we deal with very strict regulations on a daily basis. We are used to dealing with regulators and government authorities, both domestically and internationally,” Ooredoo’s CEO told CNBC.
“We are working closely with the various regulatory authorities and with NVIDIA to obtain all necessary approvals and provide all necessary assurances,” he added.
A tug of war is playing out between China and the United States over the acquisition and protection of the latest artificial intelligence technology. Top United Arab Emirates AI group G42 vowed to phase out Chinese hardware to appease Washington, then clinched a deal worth $1.5 billion with Microsoft.
The Gulf state is seeking to use its vast energy resources to pioneer artificial intelligence, investing in technology development and importing large quantities of chips to be used in AI data centers.
According to Ooredoo’s CEO, the chip is the latest generation of GPU, specialised for artificial intelligence, “enabling advanced machine learning and model exploitation for these AI models and generative AI.”
It will be used to improve the productivity and efficiency of government public services, private companies, and research and development.
Ooredoo and Nvidia’s cloud partnership is aimed at positioning the chipmaker as a central supplier of AI technology in the region, which Ooredoo says will spur innovation, development and create jobs. Both countries will have access to Nvidia’s latest full-stack AI platform, serving both Ooredoo and non-Ooredoo customers through independent data centers.
Even before announcing its partnership with Nvidia, Ooredoo had committed to investing $1 billion in expanding regional data center capacity, and Ooredoo CEO Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo told CNBC’s Dan Murphy that he expects the investment to pay for itself over the next few years.
“Demand from the cloud and adding an AI layer on top of that has already surpassed our most optimistic plans and will surpass those investments over the next three to five years.”
Ooredoo, which is backed by the Qatar Investment Authority and is listed in both Qatar and Abu Dhabi, plans to develop an AI-driven, Nvidia-powered platform to meet market demand.
Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company last week, overtaking Microsoft. The chipmaker rebounded in trading on Tuesday, reversing a three-day losing streak that saw its market capitalization drop by more than $550 billion.
