Ooredoo CEO US Chip Restrictions in the Middle East are Just Business as Usual After Deal with Nvidia

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Qatari telecom provider Ooredoo told CNBC on Wednesday that its new partnership with Nvidia complies with all U.S. regulations and will still allow it to access the latest technology. Ooredoo signed a cooperation agreement with Nvidia earlier this week, marking the chipmaker’s first major foray into the Middle East market. The two companies did not disclose the value of the deal. Under the agreement, thousands of Nvidia’s GPUs (graphics processing units) will be deployed in 26 data centers in Qatar and five other countries: Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, and Maldives. These chips will help the data centers process large amounts of information, which will provide data for AI chatbots and other tools, which are an integral part of a country’s AI infrastructure. Earlier, due to concerns that certain advanced chips might be intercepted by China, the U.S. last year restricted the sale of these chips to some Middle Eastern countries. However, Washington does allow the export of some Nvidia chips to the region, and Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all plan to manufacture less powerful chips for export to the Chinese market. These restrictions focus on the A100 and H100 chips, rather than the GPUs (another type of semiconductor) crucial to this deal.
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Ooredoo told CNBC that the deal complies with all U.S. regulations. Under this partnership, no new licenses are required for different chips. Ooredoo’s CEO told CNBC, “As a telecom operator, we are used to very strict regulations. We are used to working with regulatory bodies and government authorities, whether they are local or international.” He added, “We are working closely with different regulatory bodies and Nvidia to obtain all necessary approvals and provide all necessary assurances.” In the race to acquire and protect the latest AI technology, there is a tug-of-war between China and the U.S. The UAE’s top AI group, G42, pledged to gradually phase out Chinese hardware to appease Washington and later struck a $1.5 billion deal with Microsoft. Gulf countries are leveraging their vast energy wealth to become pioneers in AI, investing in the development of this technology and importing a large number of chips for AI data centers. The CEO of Ooredoo stated that these chips are the latest generation of GPUs, specifically designed for AI services, “they will be able to provide these AI models and generate extreme machine learning and model utilization for AI.” They will be used for government citizen services and to increase productivity and efficiency for ordinary businesses and R&D. The cloud collaboration between Ooredoo and Nvidia aims to position the chipmaker as a central source of AI technology in the region and is expected to drive innovation, development, and job creation. These countries will have access to Nvidia’s latest full-stack AI platform, providing services for both Ooredoo and non-Ooredoo customers through independent data centers. Ooredoo even pledged to invest $1 billion to increase the capacity of its regional data centers before announcing the partnership with Nvidia. Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, CEO of Ooredoo, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy that he expects this investment to pay off in the next few years. “The demand we see from the cloud, and now adding this layer of AI, has exceeded our most optimistic plans, so we may exceed this investment in the next three to five years.” Ooredoo, supported by the Qatar Investment Authority, is listed in Qatar and Abu Dhabi and plans to develop a platform powered by AI provided by Nvidia to meet market demands. Last week, Nvidia briefly surpassed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company. The chipmaker rebounded in Tuesday’s trade, reversing a string of losses that evaporated more than $550 billion in market value.