The logo of technology company NVIDIA at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California, on February 11, 2015.
Robert Galbraith | Reuters
Nvidia It plans to build a $200 million artificial intelligence center in Indonesia in partnership with local telecoms giant Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, as the beloved US tech company continues its push into Southeast Asia.
According to Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Budi Ari Setiadi, the new facility will be based in the city of Surakarta in Central Java province and will boost local communications infrastructure, human resources and digital talent.
Indosat did not respond to a request for comment, while Nvidia declined to comment on the matter.
Last month, Indosat announced that it was ready to integrate Nvidia's next-generation chip architecture, Blackwell, into its infrastructure, “with the aim of propelling Indonesia into a new era of sovereign AI and technological advancement.”
Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison is Indonesia's second-largest mobile telecommunications company following the 2022 merger between Qatar's Ooredoo and Hong Kong's CK Hutchison.
Nvidia's growing presence in Indonesia represents a broader push into Southeast Asia this year as demand for data booms in the region on the back of a growing digital economy.
In January, a telecom services provider in Singapore Singtail Nvidia has announced a partnership with Nvidia to deploy AI capabilities in its data centers across Southeast Asia.
Singtel said in March that the initiative would provide businesses in the region with access to Nvidia's edge AI computing power by this year, without the need for customers to invest in and manage expensive data center infrastructure.
Southeast Asia has proven to be a major driver of Nvidia's revenue. A US Securities and Exchange Commission report last year showed that about 15%, or $2.7 billion, of the company's revenue for the quarter ended in October came from Singapore.
Singapore was second only to the United States, which generated 34.77% of Nvidia's revenue, Taiwan, 23.91%, and China and Hong Kong, 22.24%, in sales rankings that quarter.
Revenue from the small nation-state in that quarter represented a 404.1% increase from the $562 million recorded in the same period a year earlier, outpacing Nvidia's overall revenue growth and placing it as the company's fourth-largest market.
According to Nvidia's latest quarterly earnings report, data centers accounted for the majority of its revenue, generating $18.40 billion on the back of global AI euphoria.
— CNBC's Sheila Chiang contributed reporting.
