Nvidia has revealed plans to construct a new AI centre in Indonesia in collaboration with the government and telecom company Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison.
Indonesian Minister of Communication Budi Arie Setiadi, announced on April 4 that the $200 million centre will be situated in Surakarta, in the Central Java area.
According to Setiadi, the AI centre will include a human resources centre or communication infrastructure.
The anticipated start of construction is 2024. Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the mayor of Surakarta, claims that the city’s preparedness for 5G infrastructure and people resources was a deciding factor.
To increase the country’s pool of AI talent, Nvidia and the Indonesian government inked a memorandum of agreement in January 2022, wherein Nvidia promised to train instructors and more than 20,000 university students in AI skills over five years.
This was before the AI craze that struck in November 2022 following the publication of OpenAI’s ground-breaking ChatGPT chatbot.
According to recent research, the AI industry has virtually doubled from $134.89 billion in 2022 to $241.80 billion in 2023 since the pact was signed.
Nvidia is attempting to expand its sphere of influence in Southeast Asia by pushing into Indonesia, which aligns with its recent record-breaking profits from rising demand for generative AI tools.
Nvidia and the Singapore Institute of Technology have teamed up on a new AI centre in Singapore. At the same time, local telecom operator Singtel has also worked with the chipmaker for a new data centre.
Giant AI developers like Google and Microsoft have also funded AI projects worldwide with billions of dollars, building data centres and offering training courses to local populations in France, Germany, and Spain.
After Tether, the blockchain and cryptocurrency company behind the Tether USDT stablecoin, announced an expansion of its AI focus and recruitment efforts for “top-tier” AI talent, businesses and nations have become even more eager to obtain capable AI models.
