NVIDIA Teams With Ooredoo For Large-Scale Middle East Launch

NVIDIA has agreed to a deal with Qatari telecoms group Ooredoo that will see the computing corporation’s artificial intelligence technology deployed at data centers in five Middle Eastern locations.

The expansion plans are NVIDIA’s first large-scale foray into a region where Washington has curbed US chip exports to prevent Chinese firms using Middle Eastern countries to gain back door access to cutting-edge AI technology.

Once plans are complete, Ooredoo will be the first company in the region able to offer clients direct access to NVIDIA AI and graphics processing. The telecoms firm currently has data centers in Algeria, Tunisia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and the Maldives, though no details have been released on the exact technologies that will be available in individual locations.

In a recent statement, NVIDIA’s senior vice president of telecom, Ronnie Vasishta, explained that the company’s technology will soon allow Ooredoo customers to deploy the latest generative AI applications. Meanwhile, Ooredoo’s CEO, Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, explained in a recent interview that “B2B clients, thanks to this agreement, will have access to services that probably their competitors (won’t) for another 18 to 24 months”.

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Neither company has disclosed the value of the deal, which was signed at the TM Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 19. However, we do know that Ooredoo will invest $1 billion to upgrade its regional data center capacity in the near future, while also partitioning its large undersea cable and fiber networks into a separate commercial entity.