Nvidia in West Asia? Ooredoo CEO reveals Nvidia plans amid US curbs

Sanctions deployed by the US seem to not work as they had hoped for. We talk about the impacted country's tactics and how Russia can circumvent sanctions using shadow fleets and local currency trade. But what about corporations? How do they execute expansion amid export curbs? Because for them, it's a loss of a potential market.

Nvidia has been the poster child of the AI boom. The company has exponentially surged to become the most valuable company in the world. While its see-saw with Microsoft continues, many experts are betting on Nvidia to ride this wave throughout the year. This comes as Nvidia is eyeing new markets.

Reuters has revealed an interesting insight from telecom giant Ooredoo's CEO. He says Nvidia has signed a deal to deploy its AI tech at their dedicated data centres in 5 West Asian countries. Interestingly, this would mark Nvidia's first large-scale launch in a region under US export curbs. The US considers West Asia as a 'backdoor' for Chinese firms to keep track of their progress in AI. This is why the US allows exports of some AI tech, but not the 'premium' one.

Ooredoo is reportedly investing $1 billion in boosting its data centre capacity, with plans to triple that by 2030. Meanwhile, Nvidia's senior vice president of telecom, Ronnie Vasishta, said, 'Providing the technology will allow Ooredoo to better help its customers deploy generative AI applications.'

But the real question is: Can advancements in AI be limited to a couple of countries when the whole world is witnessing this revolution?