The agreement marks Nvidia’s first large-scale deployment in the Middle East. This partnership will enable Ooredoo to become the first company in the region to offer its data centre clients in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, and the Maldives direct access to Nvidia’s AI and graphics processing technology.
The deal was signed at DTW24 Ignite, TM Forum’s event in Copenhagen on June 19, although there was no word on financials.
In a statement, Ooredoo said it would not disclose exactly what type of Nvidia technology it would use in its data centres, saying it would depend on availability and customer demand.
The US has recently restricted the export of the most sophisticated Nvidia chipsets to the Middle East in order to prevent Chinese companies from using those countries as a back door to access new AI technology.
Ooredoo is investing $1 billion to boost its data centre capacity by 20-25 megawatts (MW) on top of the 40MW it currently has. The company’s CEO Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo told Reuters that Ooredoo plans to triple that by the end of the decade.
