THE Nvidia signed an agreement for the expansion and exploitation of the technology artificial intelligence of data centers within 5 countries belonging to the telecommunications group Ooredoo of Qatar, as Ooredoo CEO Aziz Alouthman Fakhrou told Reuters.

The move marks Nvidia’s first major launch in a region where the US has restricted the export of advanced chips to prevent Chinese companies from indirectly obtaining the latest AI technology through Middle Eastern countries.

It will also make Ooredoo the first company in the region to be able to provide its customers in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait and the Maldives direct access to Nvidia’s AI and graphics technology, the company said. Ooredoo in a statement.

Although the financial details of the deal, which was finalized on the sidelines of the TM Forum in Copenhagen on June 19, have not yet been disclosed, the partnership is a strategic step for both companies.

Ooredoo has not specified the exact Nvidia technology that will be installed in its data centers, indicating that the decision will be based on both availability and customer demand.

What Nvidia’s first big deal in the Middle East means for markets

Providing the technology will allow it to better help its customers develop genetic artificial intelligence applications, said Nvidia’s senior vice president of telecommunications, Rony Vasista.

“Our b2b customers, thanks to this deal, will have access to services that their competitors probably (won’t) have for another 18 to 24 months,” Fakhrou said.

Ooredoo is investing $1 billion to boost its regional data center capacity by an additional 20-25 megawatts, on top of the 40 megawatts it has today, and plans to nearly triple that by the end of the decade, Fakhrou said.

In addition, Ooredoo has restructured its operations by spinning off its data centers into an independent company. This follows an earlier initiative to create the largest tower company in the Middle East through a transaction with Kuwait’s Zain and Dubai’s TASC Towers Holding.

At the end of 2023 Applethe Microsoftthe Amazon and the Google were the top 4 global brands, according to the consulting company Interbrand. They are also four of the five most valuable companies in the world. The fifth is Nvidia, which for a time surpassed Microsoft to become the world’s largest company by market capitalization.

However, despite its $3.1 trillion valuation (it hit $3.3 trillion before a two-day drop), Nvidia has been largely unknown until recently.

As CNBC writes, its name was not included in Interbrand’s latest list of the 100 most iconic brands for 2023, which includes companies such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Disney and Netflix.