DUBAI/LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Brookfield and Qai, an artificial intelligence company owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, have formed a $20 billion joint venture to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure in Qatar and select international markets, the two groups said Tuesday.
The joint venture aims to position Qatar as a leading AI hub in the Middle East, they said, and plans to create an Integrated Compute centre expanding regional access to high-performance computing capabilities.
The Gulf country’s $500 billion sovereign wealth fund said on Monday it was setting up its own national AI company, Qai, following in the steps of regional peers the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as they invest to become global AI hubs outside of the U.S. and China.
AI is reshaping global tech and attracting massive investments in both software and physical infrastructure, especially in the data centres needed to process the information. A McKinsey report from April estimated that a $5.2 trillion investment in data centres will be needed by 2030 to meet the worldwide demand for AI alone.
Brookfield will invest in the joint venture with Qai through its recently launched Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, which aims to invest up to $100 billion globally.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru, Federico Maccioni in Dubai, Andres Gonzalez in London, Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Anousha Sakoui and Alison Williams)
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