Qatar’s Ooredoo, Nvidia, and Nokia unveil multi‑billion‑dollar AI compute platform—and Southeast Asia is their target
OoredooInvestor
NVIDIAInvestor
NokiaInvestor
Indosat Ooredoo HutchisonInvestor
Ooredoo Group, together with Nvidia, Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, is committing $800 million for a 49% stake in Zankore, a new AI compute and neocloud platform in Indonesia, aiming to deliver 200 MW of GPU capacity by early 2027.
Ooredoo Group, Nvidia, Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison have pledged $800 million to launch Zankore, a dedicated AI compute and neocloud platform in Indonesia, taking a 49% equity position and targeting 200 MW of GPU capacity by the first half of 2027. The venture, classified as corporate‑backed venture funding, marks a multi‑billion‑dollar commitment to build a first‑of‑its‑kind AI infrastructure hub in Southeast Asia.
Deal Terms
The founding shareholders will fund Zankore’s initial 200 MW of AI capacity through a mix of equity and debt, with the $800 million spread over five years. Zankore’s roadmap calls for scaling to 1 GW of AI compute within three years, leveraging Nvidia’s latest GPU technology and Nokia’s networking expertise. Financial projections released by the partners forecast roughly $13 billion in revenue and $9 billion in cumulative EBITDA over a five‑year horizon, translating to an estimated $600 million EBITDA contribution to Ooredoo Group.
Background
Ooredoo Group, a Qatar‑government‑owned telecom operator active in nine MENA and Southeast Asian markets, has been repositioning itself as a digital‑infrastructure provider. The Indonesia venture builds on a 2024 partnership that made Ooredoo’s Indonesian affiliate, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), Nvidia’s first cloud partner in the country. Indonesia’s digital economy is projected to exceed $130 billion by 2030, while regional power demand for data‑center workloads is expected to quadruple from 2.6 GW in 2025 to 10.7 GW by 2035. Zankore’s neocloud model—GPU‑as‑a‑Service—allows customers to rent high‑performance GPUs on demand, improving capital efficiency and enabling up to 40% more compute throughput through an orchestration layer that recovers stranded power.
The platform’s early customer pipeline includes blue‑chip enterprises willing to sign multi‑million‑dollar contracts for AI workloads, giving Zankore the ability to cherry‑pick tenants with strong balance sheets. As the venture scales beyond Indonesia, it will tap into growing AI demand across Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, positioning its shareholders to capture a sizable share of Southeast Asia’s emerging AI‑ready data‑center market.
Why It Matters
For Ooredoo, Zankore accelerates its transition from a traditional telco to a high‑margin digital‑infrastructure player, offering a new revenue stream that can offset the pricing pressure on core telecom services. The stake also gives Ooredoo a foothold in Indonesia’s fast‑growing data‑center ecosystem, directly challenging regional operators such as Telkom Indonesia and global hyperscalers expanding in Jakarta.
Nvidia gains a dedicated GPU‑as‑a‑Service channel in a market where cloud giants have limited local presence, deepening its foothold in Southeast Asia’s AI compute demand. Nokia’s networking contribution positions it as a preferred supplier for AI‑focused data‑center builds, potentially opening doors to other telco‑backed cloud projects in the region. IOH, by integrating Zankore’s offering with its existing neocloud services, can compete more aggressively against Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud for enterprise AI workloads in Indonesia.
Collectively, the partnership forces other regional telecoms—such as Singapore’s Singtel and Thailand’s AIS—to consider similar infrastructure pivots or risk losing high‑value AI customers to a vertically integrated platform that bundles connectivity, power and GPU compute.
Key Points
- Ooredoo Group leads a $800 million venture round, taking a 49% equity stake in Zankore.
- Zankore will launch with 200 MW of AI compute capacity in Indonesia, targeting 1 GW within three years.
- The platform is forecast to generate $13 billion in revenue and $9 billion in EBITDA over five years.
- Nvidia supplies GPU technology, while Nokia provides networking hardware for the neocloud platform.
- The investment positions Ooredoo to pivot from traditional telco services to a digital‑infrastructure play in Southeast Asia.
Analysis
The $800 million equity infusion for a 49% stake values Zankore at roughly $1.63 billion, a multiple that sits above the typical 5‑8x ARR range for early‑stage AI infrastructure startups but reflects the platform’s projected $13 billion five‑year revenue run‑rate. At inception, the implied revenue multiple is about 12.5x, compressing to under 1x once the forecasted revenue materializes, suggesting a high‑growth, capital‑intensive play that investors are willing to fund for strategic positioning.
The deal underscores a broader shift: telcos are leveraging existing fiber, power and site assets to become AI‑ready data‑center operators, a trend that can boost net revenue retention and gross margins compared with legacy voice services. For SaaS operators, Zankore’s GPU‑as‑a‑Service model offers a low‑capex path to train large models, potentially expanding the addressable market for AI‑enabled SaaS applications across finance, health and logistics.
Investors will watch how quickly Zankore can convert its 200 MW of committed capacity into recurring contracts. If the platform achieves high‑value, multi‑year agreements with enterprise customers, its EBITDA contribution could exceed the $600 million Ooredoo expects, delivering a strong return on capital and validating the telecom‑to‑infrastructure playbook. The partnership also signals confidence in Southeast Asia’s power‑and‑connectivity landscape, encouraging further venture capital and corporate funding into regional AI compute assets.