Egypt moves to build US$1bil AI data centre with Nvidia’s tech
The project comes as the world's two main AI rivals – the US and China – vie for a greater foothold in the Middle East and Africa.
Egypt is set to construct its inaugural large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) data centre, with a target of a 200-megawatt facility valued at $1 billion, utilizing Nvidia's technology. This initiative was revealed by Egypt's Communications and Information Technology Minister on Wednesday, amid intense competition between the United States and China for dominance in AI within the Middle East and Africa.
The data centre's construction will commence with a 20-megawatt facility worth $200 million, spanning its initial three-year phase. This venture is a collaborative effort between Vodafone Business, Elsewedy Electric, and Cassava Technologies, Nvidia's primary African partner.
Nvidia, the world's most valuable publicly traded company, is at the forefront of the present AI surge, employing its graphics processing units (GPUs) housed in dedicated data centres globally to train AI models. The Egyptian data centre will employ Nvidia's accelerated computing technologies, according to Cassava Technologies.
Prior to Chinese President Xi Jinping's maiden visit to Egypt in ten years, Bloomberg had reported that Huawei had bid for Egypt to build a data centre, prompting the United States to propose an alternative offer from Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft. Xi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had pledged to enhance cooperation on artificial intelligence and technology during their meeting, though no formal agreements were reached.
Just a day after Xi's departure from Cairo, Communications Minister Hindi reportedly met with an unnamed US consortium of data centre developers, as stated in state media. Egypt has shown interest in forging international partnerships to establish itself as a regional data centre hub. The rollout of AI infrastructure has been comparatively sluggish in Africa due to weak electricity grids in many nations.
Egypt, being the most populous Arab country and Africa's second-largest economy, has grappled with an energy deficit for years, exacerbating the challenges in developing AI infrastructure.
Written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
