Zankore to build Indonesia’s first AI factory with $3.1B funding

Zankore, a joint venture between Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), Nvidia and Nokia, has secured a senior term loan facility of up to $3.1 billion to fund the construction of its initial 100-megawatt (MW) AI factory and neocloud platform in Indonesia.

A consortium of regional and international financial institutions, comprising Citi, ING, Natixis CIB, Qatar National Bank Group and United Overseas Bank, acted as the senior mandated lead arrangers, underwriters and bookrunners for the loan facility. It is one of the largest AI infrastructure financing transactions in Asia.

Proceeds from the transaction will support the purchase and deployment of advanced Nvidia GPU infrastructure, enabling Zankore to build an AI cloud platform providing high-performance GPU clusters designed for AI training and inference. This platform will provide customers with access to dedicated, production-ready AI compute at scale and on demand.

Related:Indonesia’s IOH gets $800M from Ooredoo for ambitious AI infrastructure play

“AI is creating a defining opportunity for Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The question is no longer simply whether the region will use AI, but whether we build the infrastructure that enables us to participate meaningfully in creating its future. With Nvidia’s support, Zankore is building the advanced AI computing foundation needed to help turn that opportunity into reality,” Vikram Sinha, director and chairman of Zankore, said in a statement.

Sinha also serves as president director and CEO of IOH.

Indonesia as a regional AI hub

Zankore was established more than a month ago with the goal of building one of Asia’s largest infrastructure platforms.

The Qatar-based Ooredoo Group, IOH parent company, has invested $800 million to support the launch and initial development of the platform. The Ooredoo Group holds a 49% stake in the new venture.

The other partners in the joint venture, Nokia and Nvidia, will provide the AI networking infrastructure and GPU hardware and software, respectively.

Zankore is targeting an initial deployment of 200 MW of AI capacity in the first half of 2027, with the intention of scaling up to 1 gigawatt (GW) upon completion.

The company plans to provide Nvidia-powered cloud services to AI-native companies, enterprises, startups, developers and institutions in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia.

According to Zankore, it will use a revenue-sharing and credit-support model to align infrastructure deployment with customer demand. This will help to broaden access to large-scale accelerated computing, while also providing Zankore with a capital-efficient way to grow.