Qatari telecommunications company Ooredoo has announced its partnership with American company NVIDIA to utilize advanced artificial intelligence technologies in its own data centers in several Middle Eastern countries.
This agreement was made due to the restrictions imposed by the United States on exporting advanced American chip technologies to the Middle East, aiming to prevent indirect access by Chinese companies.
Ooredoo has announced the signing of an agreement that allows it to provide direct access to NVIDIA’s advanced artificial intelligence technologies to its data center clients, making it the first company in the Middle East to offer this service.
The new technologies have been implemented in Ooredoo’s data centers in five Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, and the Maldives.
In a statement to Reuters, Aziz Al-Othman Fakhroo, the CEO of Ooredoo, confirmed that the agreement with NVIDIA will provide the company’s clients with a significant competitive advantage lasting up to 24 months, giving them services not available to their competitors.
The deal value signed between NVIDIA and Ooredoo at the TM Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, was not disclosed. Ooredoo also did not reveal the type of NVIDIA chips they will receive, as it depends on customer demand and availability.
It is worth noting that the United States only allows the export of some NVIDIA chips to the Middle East, but restricts the export of advanced chips.
Following the same approach as last year, Ooredoo has converted its data centers into an independent company after establishing the largest telecommunications tower company in the Middle East as part of a deal with Kuwait’s Zain and the UAE’s Task Towers Holdings. The company also plans to transform its submarine cables and fiber optic network into a separate entity.
NVIDIA is a global leader in manufacturing artificial intelligence chips and the artificial intelligence revolution has contributed to increasing its market value to become one of the largest global companies.