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CAIRO: Egypt plans to build its first large-scale artificial intelligence data centre, aiming for a 200-megawatt facility worth $1 billion, using Nvidia technology.<\/p>\n
The project, announced on Sept. 9 by Egypt\u2019s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Raafat Hindi, comes as the world\u2019s two main AI rivals, the US and China, vie for a greater foothold in the Middle East and Africa.<\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s AI infrastructure push<\/strong><\/p>\n The data centre is expected to start with a 20 MW facility worth $200 million in its initial three-year phase, built by a partnership between Vodafone Business, Elsewedy Electric, and Cassava Technologies, Nvidia\u2019s main partner in Africa.<\/p>\n Nvidia, the world\u2019s most valuable publicly traded company, is the key force behind the current AI frenzy.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s graphics processing units are housed in purpose-built data centers around the world and used to train AI models.<\/p>\n The Egyptian data centre will \u201cleverage Nvidia accelerated computing technologies\u201d, according to Cassava Technologies.<\/p>\n US and China vie for Egypt\u2019s AI market<\/strong><\/p>\n Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s first visit to Egypt in a decade last week, Bloomberg reported that Huawei had bid to build a data center in Egypt, prompting Washington to push a rival offer from US companies Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft.<\/p>\n Xi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed to \u201cexpand cooperation\u201d on artificial intelligence and technology, but did not sign concrete agreements.<\/p>\n On Sept. 3, a day after Xi left Cairo, communications minister Hindi met with an unnamed \u201cUS consortium of data centre developers\u201d, according to state media, which said Egypt was eager for international partnerships to make it a \u201cregional data centre hub\u201d.<\/p>\n AI infrastructure rollout has been slower in Africa than in other regions, partly because of weak electricity grids in many countries.<\/p>\n AI data centres consume massive amounts of electricity, up to five times more power than traditional data centres.<\/p>\n Egypt, the most populous Arab country and the second-largest economy in Africa, has struggled to plug an energy deficit for years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n