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Ooredoo said in a statement that the $800 million commitment will fund Zankore’s launch and initial development as the Qatari group takes a lead role in the venture. The investment secures Ooredoo a 49 percent stake in the platform, which combines full-stack AI capabilities with neocloud services and is expected to generate around $600 million in cumulative EBITDA for the group over its first five years. The move extends Ooredoo’s digital infrastructure portfolio from the Middle East and North Africa into the fast-expanding Southeast Asian AI market, according to the announcement.
Zankore will initially deliver about 200 megawatts of AI capacity in the first half of 2027 using NVIDIA’s DSX MaxLPS technology, which can provide up to a 40 percent boost in compute per power budget. The platform ultimately aims for 1 gigawatt of NVIDIA DSX AI Factory capacity starting in Indonesia before expanding across the region. Ooredoo described the project as positioning the group as an early mover in Southeast Asian AI infrastructure while contributing to earnings in hard currency.
The platform is being developed in collaboration with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Nokia and Nvidia, Ooredoo stated. Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, chief executive of Ooredoo Group, said in the announcement, “AI will define next decade of value creation in emerging markets we invest alongside right partners in scalable platforms for long-term value.” Fakhroo added that the initiative aligns with the group’s strategy to capture opportunities in high-growth digital sectors.
Ooredoo has pursued several AI-related initiatives in recent years, including the deployment of NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure in Qatar to support local innovation. The group also expanded its collaboration with Google Cloud to accelerate digital innovation and new revenue models, according to its earlier corporate disclosures. These steps form part of a broader push into data centers and AI that included a QAR 2 billion financing deal secured in 2024 to expand its AI business.
A MarketsandMarkets assessment found the global AI data center market is projected to expand from $471.59 billion in 2026 to $2,023.52 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual rate of 27.5 percent. The consultancy noted that Asia-Pacific is anticipated to record the highest CAGR during the period, supported by government initiatives and rising demand for high-performance computing. Mordor Intelligence separately projected the related AI factory infrastructure market to rise from $381.5 billion in 2026 to $782.4 billion by 2031 at a 15.45 percent CAGR, with Asia-Pacific expanding at 16.91 percent annually.
ABI Research data places active data center capacity dedicated to AI workloads in the rest of Asia-Pacific, including Southeast Asia, at 2.3 gigawatts in 2026, forecast to reach 8.9 gigawatts by 2031. The research firm attributed the acceleration to enterprises shifting toward AI-specific cloud strategies and latency-sensitive workloads across the region. Ooredoo said its investment in Zankore will help address such demand while building on partnerships that leverage advanced GPU and networking technologies.
