Pakistan Gets its First AI Data Center

by Riaz Haq

Dec 10, 2025

Data Vault and Telenor Pakistan have launched the nation's first dedicated AI data center in Karachi. It is designed to support startups, researchers, and government agencies with high-performance computing and GPU-as-a-service offerings. It is equipped with more than 3,000 Nvidia's highest performance H100 and H200 GPUs for which the Trump Administration issued export licenses. These GPUs cost from $40,000 to $60,000 each, making the Nvidia chips the biggest chunk of the investment made in this AI data center. Other data centers in Pakistan also support AI workloads but this new data center in Karachi is specially designed for AI. It puts the country on a short list of only a handful of nations with locally hosted AI data centers. Pakistanis rank among the world's top five users of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, securing the fourth spot among 21 nations surveyed by the Schwartz Reisman Institute.

The local hosting of data in Pakistan ensures data sovereignty to comply with national data protection and security standards. It also achieves faster response times for queries.  The data center runs entirely on solar power, making it a green data center solution. Additionally, the government of Pakistan has allocated 2,000 MW of power from the national grid for AI data centers. 

One of the objectives of locally hosted AI data centers is to support Urdu language models (LLMs) trained to help Pakistani consumers who wish to use AI chatbots in local languages. A number of Urdu LLMs have already been developed in the country, including Alif and UrduLlama, both based on the open-source Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct architecture. Another model named UrduGPT is described as Pakistan's own large language model, UrduGPT is fine-tuned specifically for Urdu and regional languages of Pakistan using local datasets and cultural semantics to ensure relevance for native speakers.

Currently, Pakistan has 27 data centers located in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, operated by PTCL, Multinet, and Cybernet. More are being built. Zong, a local mobile phone service operator owned by China Mobile, is building AI-driven cloud infrastructure in Pakistan. Indus Cloud and Huawei have a strategic partnership that aims to launch a next-generation cloud data center, incorporating energy-efficient Huawei technology. XDS and Al Nahal IT Park are partnering to build a liquid-cooled data center at the Al Nahal IT Park in Sindh province. Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL), the state-owned oil and gas firm, is diversifying by forming a subsidiary, Mari Technologies, to build Tier III and Tier IV data centers in Islamabad and Karachi, with the 5MW Islamabad facility set for completion by early 2026.

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  • Riaz Haq

    AI Overview

    GO Telecommunications Group establishes AI Hub in Pakistan ...
    GO AI Hub Pakistan is a joint initiative between Pakistan's Ministry of IT and Saudi Arabia's GO Telecom, launched in Islamabad in October 2025 to boost AI development, digital skills, and tech exports, fostering collaboration, innovation, and creating jobs through training, research, and connecting Pakistani talent to global markets, especially Saudi Arabia. It aims to position Pakistan as a regional tech leader, supporting digital transformation through AI labs, datacenters, and talent hubs under initiatives like the {Link: Digital Nation Vision Pakistan.}
    Key Aspects of GO AI Hub Pakistan:
    Partnership: A collaboration between Pakistan's Ministry of IT & Telecom (MoITT) and Saudi Arabia's GO Telecom Group.
    Objective: To advance Pakistan's digital economy, foster AI innovation, build digital skills, and create jobs.
    Focus Areas: Developing AI solutions, cybersecurity, data systems, talent development, and creating pathways for Pakistani freelancers and companies.
    Facilities: Includes plans for AI labs, datacenters, and a "GO Talent Hub" for training.
    Benefits: Aims to increase IT exports, provide access to global markets (especially Saudi), and empower youth with digital skills.
    Strategic Importance: Aligns with Pakistan's "Digital Nation" vision and strengthens tech ties with Saudi Arabia.
    In essence, it's a significant step in tech collaboration, leveraging Saudi investment and expertise with Pakistan's skilled workforce to create a regional AI and digital innovation powerhouse, noted by sources like Dawn, Arab News, Aaj English TV and The Express Tribune.

    Jan 4

  • Riaz Haq

    Bottom layer: Energy
    Second layer: AI Chips
    Third layer: Infrastructure (data centers, cloud services)
    Fourth layer: AI Models
    Top layer: Applications

    Five layers of artificial intelligence (#AI): #Energy (#electricity), #Semiconductor #Chips, #DataCenters/ #CloudServices, AI #LLM Models and #Applications.

    https://x.com/haqsmusings/status/2015281283077923050?s=61&t=mgT...

    Jan 24

  • Riaz Haq

    Pakistan Digital Authority and DFINITY Partner for Sovereign Cloud Infrastructure and AI Software Systems

    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260210476471/en/Pakistan-D...

    Agreement establishes Pakistan Subnet of Internet Computer Platform (ICP), supports tamper‑proof digital infrastructure, enables local AI‑native software development and pilots national messenger app

    ISLAMABAD & ZURICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) and the DFINITY Foundation today signed an MoU to advance sovereign AI‑native digital infrastructure in Pakistan, ensuring sensitive data remains in‑country while enabling secure, modern software systems built for the AI era.

    "By establishing a Pakistan Subnet and investing in sovereign, tamper proof systems, the country is laying the groundwork for software and AI applications that are secure, verifiable, and built to serve national priorities," said Dominic Williams, DFINITY.

    As part of the partnership, DFINITY will support the creation of a dedicated Pakistan Subnet on its Internet Computer Platform (ICP), a sovereign cloud designed to host tamper‑resistant software, national‑scale applications, and AI‑powered systems that can create and operate independently of foreign cloud infrastructure.

    The collaboration also includes plans for a National Messenger application enabling private, verifiable communications; expanded access to Caffeine, an AI platform incubated by DFINITY; 1,500 Caffeine licenses to create applications and capacity‑building initiatives across government, education, and entrepreneurship. DFINITY will also establish a local presence in Pakistan, reinforcing long‑term collaboration and technical engagement in the country.

    “This partnership marks an important step in Pakistan’s digital evolution,” said Dr. Sohail Munir, Chairperson of the Pakistan Digital Authority. “By investing in sovereign cloud infrastructure and modern AI‑ready platforms, we are strengthening national resilience, supporting innovation, and creating new opportunities for our public institutions, students, and entrepreneurs.”

    Chief Scientist and Founder of DFINITY and Caffeine, Dominic Williams, added: “Pakistan is taking a forward‑looking approach to digital infrastructure. By establishing a Pakistan Subnet and investing in sovereign, tamper‑proof systems, the country is laying the groundwork for software and AI applications that are secure, verifiable, and built to serve national priorities. This partnership enables Pakistan to build, own, and operate AI and cloud services on its own terms.”

    Caffeine empowers people to build and deploy production‑ready apps and services to the Internet Computer by describing what they want in natural language, removing traditional barriers such as the need for engineering teams and complex development pipelines. Caffeine is used by solo builders, municipalities, banks, and public institutions worldwide. Three months after launch, users have executed more than 3.4 million build prompts.

    DFINITY created the Internet Computer, an open network providing a serverless sovereign cloud allowing governments, institutions and individuals to run tamper-proof and resilient software with full ownership and free from foreign provider and intelligence agency access. Investing over $500 million in research and development, DFINITY’s team composed of engineers and researchers formerly from Google, Apple, IBM, and Meta, have published more than 1,500 papers, earned 88,000+ citations, and contributed 190+ patents across distributed systems, cryptography, and advanced computing.

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