Ooredoo of Qatar is Leading a $800 Million Investment In Zankore, an AI Platform

By investing in Zankore, a specialized AI compute and neocloud platform being built alongside Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Nokia, and Nvidia, Qatari telecoms services provider Ooredoo (ORDS.QA) is broadening its AI computing ambitions, the company announced on Thursday.

Ooredoo will contribute over $800 million to Zankore’s launch and early development as a founding stakeholder and main investor with a 49% interest.

According to current estimates, the initial investment will contribute about $600 million in cumulative EBITDA over its first five years. Zankore is aiming for 1 gigawatt of NVIDIA DSX AI Factory capacity and will first be developed in Indonesia before expanding throughout Southeast Asia.

The platform will employ NVIDIA DSX MaxLPS technology, which can boost compute output by up to 40% within the same power budget, and is anticipated to produce roughly 200 megawatts of AI capability in the first half of 2027.

The investment coincides with Gulf states increasing their expenditures in AI and data infrastructure, positioning Ooredoo as a pioneer in Southeast Asia’s fast expanding AI infrastructure industry.

On Thursday, Bloomberg News revealed that Mubadala in Abu Dhabi is considering investing $6.3 billion in an AI data center in Japan. The news has not been independently verified by Reuters.

The claim comes after Nikkei said earlier on Thursday that U.S. and Japanese businesses could invest about 2 trillion yen ($12.67 billion) to construct Japan’s largest AI data center, possibly in conjunction with investors from the UAE and other countries.