Huawei Cloud Boosts Investment in the Middle East and Central Asia: AI Expansion and Local Ecosystem Development

Jakarta, INTI - Huawei Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Chinese technology giant Huawei, is deepening its investment in the Middle East and Central Asia. After 26 years of operations in these regions, Huawei Cloud is now focused on advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and building a local ecosystem to support digital transformation across various industries. This move aligns with Huawei's ‘Everything as a Service’ strategy, which aims to provide secure, reliable, and cutting-edge cloud infrastructure.

At GITEX Global 2024 in Dubai, Roy Luo, Head of Huawei Cloud Solution and Marketing for the Middle East and Central Asia, outlined the company's commitment to expanding its AI capabilities. Huawei Cloud has established four cloud regions in the Middle East and Africa, including a tier-three data center in Saudi Arabia that delivers 20-millisecond latency within the country and 100-millisecond coverage across the wider region. This infrastructure enables faster and more efficient processing of cloud-based applications and services.

Government Leads Digital Transformation

The public sector is taking the lead in cloud adoption in this region, with government-led digital initiatives driving transformation. For instance, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is accelerating digital transformation across various industries, from public services to energy. Luo noted that governments in the Middle East are setting ambitious visions for the future, such as smart cities, digital public services, and sustainable energy solutions.

In Uzbekistan, Huawei has implemented an e-government system serving 37 million citizens with over 400 public services accessible via cloud infrastructure. Huawei's cloud solutions also offer ultra-low latency capabilities for live e-commerce and support services, ensuring end-to-end delays of less than 500 milliseconds. Huawei's data governance framework provides tools for data collection, quality assurance, and security, allowing industries to leverage data as a foundation for AI implementation.

AI Development and Ecosystem Growth

Huawei Cloud’s AI strategy centers around five foundational models, including natural language processing for text analysis, image recognition, and multimodal capabilities for digital content creation. Huawei’s Beta Studio platform enables users to create digital avatars by simply uploading videos or photos from a mobile device. Powered by Huawei’s Pangu AI and language models, these avatars can speak in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, and Spanish.

Huawei’s ecosystem development strategy includes two main programs: Go Cloud, which supports software innovation, and Grow Cloud, focused on building local cloud businesses. Over the past three years, Huawei has developed more than 400 partners for solutions and sales in the Middle East and Central Asia, supported by its GaussDB database management system for data storage.

In its largest talent development initiative to date, Huawei plans to train 500,000 developers in the region over the next five years, partnering with more than 1,000 solution providers. Huawei believes that entering the era of intelligence is no longer a question, and the company is committed to helping countries in the Middle East and Central Asia leverage data effectively to drive AI innovation.