DOHA, June 23 (Reuters) - Nvidia ( NVDA ) has signed a deal to

deploy its artificial intelligence technology at data centres

owned by Qatari telecoms group Ooredoo in five Middle Eastern

countries, Ooredoo's CEO told Reuters.

The agreement marks Nvidia's ( NVDA ) first large-scale launch in a

region to which Washington has curbed the export of

sophisticated U.S. chips to stop Chinese firms from using Middle

Eastern countries as a back door to access the newest AI

technology.

It will make Ooredoo the first company in the region able to

give clients of its data centers in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia,

Oman, Kuwait and the Maldives direct access to Nvidia's ( NVDA ) AI and

graphics processing technology, Ooredoo said in a statement.

Providing the technology will allow Ooredoo to better help

its customers deploy generative AI applications, Nvidia's ( NVDA ) senior

vice president of telecom Ronnie Vasishta said.

"Our b2b clients, thanks to this agreement, will have access

to services that probably their competitors (won't) for another

18 to 24 months," Ooredoo's CEO Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo told

Reuters in an interview.

The companies did not disclose the value of the deal, which

was signed on the sidelines of the TM Forum in Copenhagen on

June 19.

Ooredoo also would not disclose exactly what type of Nvidia ( NVDA )

technology it will be installing in its data centres, saying

that it depends on availability and customer demand.

Washington allows the export of some Nvidia ( NVDA ) technology to

the Middle East, but curbs exports of the company's most

sophisticated chips.

Ooredoo is investing $1 billion to boost its regional data

centre capacity by 20-25 additional megawatts on top of the 40

megawatts it currently has, and plans to almost triple that by

the end of the decade, Fakhroo said.

The company has carved out its data centers into a separate

company following a similar move last year to create the Middle

East's largest tower company in a deal with Kuwait's Zain

and Dubai's TASC Towers Holding.

Ooredoo also has plans to carve out its undersea cables and

fiber network into a separate entity, Fakhroo said.