Ooredoo, a telecom company based in Qatar, said CNBC on Wednesday that it complies with all US legislation regarding its new partnership with Nvidia and would continue to have access to cutting-edge technology. Nvidia made its first significant foray into the Middle Eastern market when it partnered with Ooredoo earlier this week. The deal’s worth was kept a secret by the firms.

As a result of the agreement, thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia will be installed in 26 data centres located in Qatar as well as Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, and the Maldives. These chips will aid data centres in handling enormous volumes of data, which will power AI chatbots and other tools—crucial elements of a nation’s AI infrastructure.

The partnership comes after the US banned the sale of some cutting-edge processors to select Middle Eastern countries last year due to concerns that China would intercept the technology.

Some Nvidia processors are permitted to be exported to the area by Washington, and Nvidia, AMD, and Intel have all stated that they intend to produce chips with lower power for the Chinese market. The limitations apply only to A100 and H100 chips, not to GPUs, which are a different kind of semiconductor and are crucial to this transaction.

According to Ooredoo, all US requirements are met by this acquisition, as reported by CNBC. No additional licences for distinct chips have been issued as a result of the agreement.

“As a telecom operator, dealing with very stringent regulation is business as usual. We are used to dealing with regulators and government authorities, whether they’re local or international,” Ooredoo’s CEO told CNBC.

“We are working very closely with the different regulators and with Nvidia to see all the required approvals and to provide all the guarantees required,” he added.

There has been a competition between China and the US to acquire and safeguard cutting edge artificial intelligence technologies, resulting in a tug of war. Top AI group G42 in the United Arab Emirates promised to gradually phase out Chinese gear in order to placate Washington. They eventually completed a $1.5 billion agreement with Microsoft.

Gulf governments are attempting to lead the way in artificial intelligence by investing in the field’s development and importing large amounts of the chips needed for AI data centres. They are doing this by utilising their enormous energy wealth.

These processors are the newest generation of GPUs designed specifically for artificial intelligence, according to the CEO of Ooredoo, and they “will be able to deliver extreme machine learning and model utilisation of these AI models and generative AI.”

They will be utilised by governments to provide citizen services, by general businesses to increase production and efficiency, and by research and development.

The goal of Ooredoo and Nvidia’s cloud relationship is to establish the chipmaker as the go-to supplier for AI technology in the area. Ooredoo claims that this partnership will spur innovation, development, and job creation. Through separate data centres, the nations will get access to Nvidia’s most recent full-stack AI technology, which serves both Ooredoo and non-Ooredoo clients.

Even before announcing its agreement with Nvidia, Ooredoo pledged to invest an additional $1 billion to increase the capacity of its regional data centres. The CEO of Ooredoo, Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, stated to CNBC’s Dan Murphy that he anticipates receiving his investment back over the next few years.

“The demand we’re seeing just from the cloud and now adding that layer of AI to it is already outstripping our most optimistic plan, so we will probably exceed that investment in the next three to five years.”

In an attempt to satisfy consumer demand, Ooredoo, which is listed in both Abu Dhabi and Qatar and is supported by the Qatar Investment Authority, intends to create an AI-powered platform using Nvidia technology.

Last week, Nvidia momentarily surpassed Microsoft to become the most valuable corporation in the world. In Tuesday’s trading, the chipmaker recovered, snapping a three-day losing run that had erased roughly $550 billion from its market worth.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)

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