Gulf investors turn to Asia for AI opportunities

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Gulf investors are looking to Asia for opportunities in the AI race as conflict in the Middle East and Europe and supply-chain uncertainty raise the appeal of markets seen as relatively stable. Qatari telecom Ooredoo is the lead investor in Zankore, a new AI compute platform in Indonesia, committing $800 million to support its launch. The company plans to deliver 200 megawatts of capacity next year, with Nvidia and Nokia as suppliers. Ooredoo, which has had a foothold in Indonesia for nearly two decades, sees data center demand more than tripling in Southeast Asia by 2030.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala is weighing becoming the lead investor in a possible $6.3 billion, 500-megawatt data center in Japan’s Akita prefecture, Bloomberg reported. While much is made of the Gulf’s domestic AI build-outs, the ambitious global deals show the region is also focused on securing a stake in the infrastructure underpinning the technology.

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