-
Indosat will use Nvidia Tensor Core Graphics Processing Units to “unlock new frontiers"
-
The move builds on an MoU signed at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona
-
The collaboration with Nvidia boosts Indosat's profile in the overall AI ecosystem
Indonesian service provider Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) announced a collaboration with Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia to accelerate the development of the country’s sovereign AI.
As part of the agreement, Indosat will use Nvidia Tensor Core Graphics Processing Units (GPU), based on the Blackwell platform, to “unlock new frontiers of possibility, helping businesses across industries harness the full potential of AI and machine learning to drive productivity, efficiency and innovation.”
Nvidia last week announced the launch of the Blackwell chip, which enables organizations to “build and run real-time generative AI on trillion-parameter large language models at up to 25x less cost and energy consumption than its predecessor.” Blackwell-based products will be available later this year. Google, Meta, Amazon Web Services, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Open AI, Oracle and Tesla are some of the prominent technology players that are likely to adopt Blackwell.
The announcement builds on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed earlier this year between IOH and Nvidia at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona. As part of this MoU, Lintasarta, Indosat’s subsidiary, will offer GPU-as-a-Service, allowing its customers to access AI capabilities for high-demand computing services.
“The adoption of the Nvidia Blackwell platform will help Indosat solidify a paradigm shift in how Indonesia harnesses the power of AI and machine learning to drive innovation, economic growth, and national sovereignty,” says the press release issued by IOH.
“With Blackwell technology at our fingertips, we are one step closer to our larger purpose of empowering Indonesia and leading the charge in sovereign AI, driving innovation, economic growth, and prosperity for future generations,” said Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison CEO Vikram Sinha in a statement.
Indosat is Indonesia’s second-largest service provider, with almost 100 million subscribers as of December 2023. Collaboration with Nvidia is also an important part of IOH’s transformation from a telco to a techco. To this end, Lintasarta, Indosat and BDx Data Centers recently formed BDx Indonesia, which has acquired several collocation and edge sites in major cities in the country.
Building AI profile
Collaboration between IOH and Nvidia will not only help in the development of the country’s AI infrastructure but also build IOH’s profile in the AI ecosystem.
Several telcos, including India’s Reliance Jio, Singapore’s Singtel and AT&T in the U.S., have recently formed an alliance with Nvidia to leverage AI to improve their operational efficiency and build new capabilities. While Jio and Nvidia have partnered to build a large language model for the country, Singtel is leveraging Nvidia’s AI platform to provide generative AI to its customers. On the other hand, AT&T collaborated with Nvidia last year to use Nvidia products for “processing data, optimizing service-fleet routing and building digital avatars for employee support and training.”
Nvidia emerged as a leading AI company when its GPUs were used to power OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which disrupted the tech sector in November 2022.
Apart from IOH, Singtel, Yotta Data Services, Nexgen Cloud, Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud and Australian Government Clouds, among others, will create Sovereign AI clouds to offer Blackwell-based cloud services and infrastructure.