Ooredoo, a prominent telecommunications provider from Qatar, has announced the launch of advanced sovereign AI cloud services in the country, built on NVIDIA Hopper GPUs and hosted in its local data centres.
This is a significant step in maintaining data sovereignty, in a region like the Middle East, where the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also led to growing consciousness surrounding the need for greater data protection, privacy, and localisation. Moreover, this launch is also in line with the Qatar Digital Agenda 2030 and the Qatar National AI Strategy, which call for robust digital infrastructure, local hosting of critical technology, and the responsible development of AI to benefit society and the economy.
In a press release, Ooredoo addressed these very concerns saying, “By enabling advanced artificial intelligence applications without relying on international providers, and by delivering high-performance computing infrastructure locally, Ooredoo is accelerating AI adoption across key sectors, including energy, finance, logistics, healthcare, and smart city development.” It further said that customers would benefit from “faster access to computing power, the ability to handle massive datasets securely, and the convenience of deploying AI solutions under national data policies, all with the low latency and reliability of in-country infrastructure.”
Sheikh Ali Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chief Executive Officer, Ooredoo Qatar, said, “Our collaboration with NVIDIA paves the way for a new generation of innovation, empowering everyone from startups to government entities to benefit from the full potential of artificial intelligence, securely and efficiently. This, in turn, will fuel economic growth, upgrade citizen experiences, and cement Qatar’s position as a digital leader in the region.”
“Whether a team is developing AI-powered chatbots, optimising supply chains, or analysing financial patterns in real time, they will be able to do so with global-grade tools, deployed securely in Ooredoo’s data centres, hosted and operated by Syntys through mission-critical infrastructure facilities designed to meet the demands of high-performance computing workloads,” said Ooredoo.
Ooredoo further said that as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP), it offers customers access to cutting-edge GPU technology and to NVIDIA’s full software suite for AI development. This includes the NVIDIA AI Enterprise platform, which aims to simplify and speed up the process of building, testing, and scaling AI models from idea to production.
