Pakistan eyes AI future with first large-scale local data center network

As countries race to dominate the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI), investing billions of dollars in data centers, advanced chips and computing infrastructure, Pakistan is taking its first major step toward building a domestic AI ecosystem.

The country has launched its first large-scale AI-ready data center network, a move that could strengthen data sovereignty, reduce reliance on foreign cloud providers and lay the foundation for an AI-driven digital economy.

Kamran Khan said in the latest episode of On My Radar that the global competition has shifted from oil, gas and conventional industries to microchips, data and AI infrastructure. He said the next economic superpowers will be determined not by the number of factories they build, but by the computing power they control, making AI infrastructure a strategic national asset.

As part of this effort, Sky47, a subsidiary of Mari Technologies, which operates under the Fauji Foundation, has established Pakistan's first large-scale AI-ready data center network. Its flagship data center in Islamabad has already been completed, a second facility in Karachi is nearing completion, while planning is underway for another center in Lahore.

With a capacity of approximately 50 megawatts, the Islamabad facility will be Pakistan's largest locally developed AI infrastructure to date. Equipped with thousands of server racks, the network will not only host Pakistan's national data but will also be capable of running and training large AI models while providing high-performance computing services to businesses, government institutions and technology companies.

Until now, Pakistan has relied heavily on global technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and other foreign cloud service providers. As a result, valuable foreign exchange has flowed overseas while sensitive government, financial and telecommunications data has often been hosted outside the country. The development of local AI-ready data centers is being seen as an important step toward reducing that dependence and strengthening Pakistan's digital sovereignty.

AI adoption is already accelerating across Pakistan's economy. Software companies are increasingly using AI for coding, testing and software development, with some reporting productivity gains of 20% to 40%. Banks are deploying AI for fraud detection and loan analysis, while call centers are using AI-powered chatbots. Hospitals are also beginning to use AI to interpret X-rays and other medical reports.

Despite the momentum, significant challenges remain. Pakistan still faces shortages of advanced AI chips, high-performance computing capacity, affordable and reliable electricity, and the investment and research resources needed to compete with leading AI economies. These constraints continue to limit the country's ability to develop AI infrastructure at a global scale.

Even so, Pakistan possesses several competitive advantages. The country has more than 600,000 IT professionals, one of the world's largest freelance technology workforces, and thousands of engineers working on AI projects for companies in the United States, Europe and the Gulf states. The government has also announced plans to expand investment in AI by 2030, including 1,000 PhD scholarships and AI training for one million people.

Experts say that if projects such as Sky47 are completed successfully, the government introduces a clear national AI policy and private-sector investment accelerates, Pakistan could evolve from being primarily a consumer of AI technologies into a regional hub for AI infrastructure and digital services.