Nvidia to deploy its AI technology at Ooredoo data centres

It will make Ooredoo the first firm in the region able to give clients of its data centres in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait and the Maldives direct access to Nvidia’s AI and graphics processing technology, Ooredoo said

Nvidia has signed a deal to deploy its AI technology at data centres owned by Qatari telecoms group Ooredoo in five Middle Eastern countries, Ooredoo’s CEO told Reuters.

The agreement marks Nvidia’s first large-scale launch in a region to which Washington has curbed the export of sophisticated U.S. chips to stop Chinese companies from using Middle Eastern countries as a back door to access the newest artificial intelligence technology.

It will make Ooredoo the first firm in the region able to give clients of its data centres in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait and the Maldives direct access to Nvidia’s artificial intelligence and graphics processing technology, Ooredoo said in a statement.

Providing the technology will allow Ooredoo to better help its customers deploy generative artificial intelligence applications, Nvidia’s senior VP of telecom Ronnie Vasishta noted.

Our b2b clients, thanks to this agreement, will have access to services that probably their competitors won’t for another 18 to 24 months, Ooredoo’s Chief Executive Officer Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo told Reuters in an interview.

The firms did not disclose the value of the deal, which was signed on the sidelines of the TM Forum in Copenhagen on June 19.

Ooredoo also would not reveal exactly what type of Nvidia technology it will be installing in its data centres, saying that it depends on availability and customer demand.

Washington allows the export of some Nvidia technology to the Middle East, but curbs exports of the firm’s most sophisticated chips.

Ooredoo is investing $1 billion to bolster its regional data centre capacity by 20-25 additional megawatts on top of the 40 megawatts it currently has, and plans to almost triple that by the end of the decade, Fakhroo added.

The firm has carved out its data centres into a separate firm following a similar move last year to create the Middle East’s biggest tower firm in a deal with Kuwait’s Zain and Dubai’s TASC Towers Holding.