Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indosat and NVIDIA Open Indonesia’s First University AI Center to Develop Local AI Talent

Indonesia is taking charge of its AI future. This week, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi), Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat or IOH), NVIDIA and Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) launched the UGM Indosat NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC) in Yogyakarta — the country’s first university-based AI technology center.

Established under Indonesia’s AI Center of Excellence initiative, UGM Indosat NVAITC brings government, industry and academia together to develop AI that addresses Indonesia’s most urgent national priorities. “The Indonesia AI Center of Excellence reflects our long-term vision to position Indonesia as a nation that not only adopts AI but also develops and contributes AI innovations to the world,” said Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs. “Through initiatives like this, we are laying the foundations of Indonesia’s AI sovereignty and ensuring AI becomes a driver of economic growth, national competitiveness and solutions to Indonesia’s most pressing challenges.” “UGM is committed to supporting Indonesia’s AI ambitions through education, research, and innovation that deliver real societal impact,” said Prof. dr. Ova Emilia, Ph.D. “This initiative supports national priorities in higher education, research downstreaming and talent development by accelerating the adoption of AI and preparing future-ready Indonesian talent.” Compute That Belongs to the Country Powered by NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform and GPU Merdeka — Indosat’s sovereign GPU-as-a-service platform — UGM Indosat NVAITC gives UGM’s researchers and students access to enterprise-grade accelerated computing, AI software, open source, pretrained models, development frameworks and technical mentorship. It also connects Indonesian researchers to a worldwide ecosystem of expertise. “At Indosat, we believe no Indonesian should be left behind in the AI era,” said Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. “Through UGM Indosat NVAITC, we are bringing the best of global AI technologies and expertise to Indonesia, while expanding access for the ecosystem of researchers, students, startups, and innovators across the country. By strengthening AI readiness and empowering Indonesian talent, we aim to support the government’s vision for AI and help position Indonesia not only as a user of AI technologies, but as a nation that develops and contributes AI innovations to the world.” The opportunity is real. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country, with researchers and developers working on problems of scale and urgency. What they’ve historically lacked is access to the compute, models and infrastructure to move from insight to impact. “Indonesia is home to an extraordinary community of researchers, developers and innovators with the potential to shape the future of AI,” said Marc Hamilton, vice president of solutions architecture and engineering at NVIDIA. “From healthcare and agriculture to disaster preparedness, the opportunities for AI to drive real change are immense. Through UGM Indosat NVIDIA AI Technology Center, NVIDIA is committed to equipping Indonesian talent with NVIDIA Nemotron open models and expertise to turn that potential into innovation with local and global impact.” AI for Indonesian Challenges Three initial projects define what this center is for, focused on healthcare, agriculture and natural disaster response.