Aug 6 (Reuters) - Qatari telecommunications services

provider Ooredoo is expanding its AI computing

ambitions through an investment in Zankore, a dedicated AI

compute and neocloud platform being developed with Indosat

Ooredoo Hutchison, Nokia and Nvidia ( NVDA ), it said on Thursday.

* As founding shareholder and lead investor with a 49%

stake, Ooredoo will commit about $800 million to Zankore's

launch and initial development

* The initial investment is expected to contribute

approximately $600 million in cumulative EBITDA over its first

five years, according to current estimates

* Zankore, which will initially be developed in Indonesia

before expanding across Southeast Asia, is targeting 1 gigawatt

of NVIDIA DSX AI Factory capacity

* The platform is expected to deliver about 200 megawatts of

AI capacity in the first half of 2027 and will use NVIDIA DSX

MaxLPS technology, which can increase computing output by up to

40% within the same power budget

* The investment positions Ooredoo as an early mover in

Southeast Asia's rapidly growing AI infrastructure market and

comes as Gulf states accelerate investments in AI and data

infrastructure

* Separately, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that Abu

Dhabi's Mubadala is weighing a $6.3 billion AI data center

investment in Japan. Reuters has not independently verified the

news.

* The report follows Nikkei's announcement earlier on

Thursday that Japanese and U.S. companies, potentially alongside

investors from the UAE and elsewhere, could invest around 2

trillion yen ($12.67 billion) to build Japan's largest AI data

centre

($1 = 157.8800 yen)