JAKARTA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Russia's internet giant

Yandex plans to invest in Indonesia's artificial

intelligence (AI) ecosystem, the Southeast Asian country's

communications and digital minister said.

Meutya Hafid, Indonesia's communications minister, met

Alexander Popovskiy, head of Yandex's international search

division, on Thursday and said the company expressed its plan to

"widen the search engine platform in Indonesia," according to a

statement distributed by the ministry on Friday.

It did not provide details on what the investment entails or

the size of the potential investment.

The ministry did not immediately respond when asked about

the investment's size or time frame.

Yandex, known as "Russia's Google", did not immediately

respond to a request for comment. The company develops its own

large language models and is one of Russia's leading companies

in AI.

But the industry's development in Russia faces challenges as

the West has sought to restrict the country's access to

technologies that could help it sustain its war against Ukraine,

and as major global producers of microchips have halted exports

to Russia.

Indonesia, which has a massive tech-savvy young population,

has attracted interest from several global tech firms in recent

months.

AI chip leader Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Indonesia's telco firm PT

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison plan to build an artificial

intelligence centre in Central Java this year, worth $200

million, Indonesia's previous communications minister said in

April.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) said earlier this year it will invest

$1.7 billion over the next four years into expanding cloud

services and artificial intelligence in Indonesia, including

building data centres.