Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi), Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, NVIDIA, and Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) officially launched the UGM Indosat NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC) on August 13, 2026, marking the country’s first university-based AI technology center dedicated to advancing AI research, innovation, and digital talent development. The center is located in Yogyakarta.
Government, industry and academia under one roof
Established as part of the Indonesia AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) initiative, UGM Indosat NVAITC brings government, global technology leaders, industry, and academia together to accelerate applied AI research in Indonesia’s priority sectors.
Indonesia’s communications minister framed the opening as a sovereignty play as much as a research initiative. “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.
She added: “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.”
Infrastructure and access for researchers and startups
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 accelerated computing, AI software, pre-trained models, development frameworks, technical mentorship and training, along with connections to an international network of expertise.
The center also connects Indonesian researchers to a worldwide ecosystem of expertise. Indosat’s chief executive signaled the center’s scope extends well beyond the university campus.
Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, said “At Indosat, we believe no Indonesian should be left behind in the AI era.” He added that through UGM Indosat NVAITC, the company is 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.
NVIDIA’s Marc Hamilton, vice president of solutions architecture and engineering, said the company would equip Indonesian researchers with leading open models and expertise. Hamilton said Indonesia is home to an extraordinary community of researchers, developers and innovators with the potential to shape the future of AI.
Three applied research projects from day one
The center will initially focus on applied AI research aligned with national priorities. Its first projects include eNose-TB, an AI-powered screening technology designed to help fight tuberculosis; SmartAgri, which applies multimodal AI, edge computing, and precision-farming technologies to improve productivity and resilience in tropical agriculture; and Tech4Disaster, a geospatial AI platform for disaster prediction, preparedness, and response.
Prof. Ova Emilia, Rector of Universitas Gadjah Mada, said the university is “committed to supporting Indonesia’s AI ambitions through education, research, and innovation that deliver real societal impact.” She said the center is expanding access to advanced AI infrastructure and global expertise for students and researchers, while strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration in areas including healthcare, agriculture, and disaster resilience.
The launch arrives as Indonesia pursues a broader push to build domestic AI capability. The demand for AI skills is growing fast, and the pressure it creates on workers who rely on AI-generated answers without questioning their accuracy has become a measurable business problem, as explored in research on AI overreliance. Separately, the risks that accompany rapidly expanding AI infrastructure have drawn renewed scrutiny, as illustrated by a 9.8-severity flaw that recently exposed hundreds of millions of users’ file-sharing software to state-backed attackers.
A model for emerging-market AI hubs
The Yogyakarta opening came just days after Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison launched Zankore by Indosat, in collaboration with Ooredoo Group, Nokia, and NVIDIA, a dedicated AI compute and neocloud platform designed to meet the region’s rapidly growing demand for secure and scalable AI computing, while advancing Indonesia’s position as a regional AI hub. The platform is targeting 1 gigawatt of NVIDIA DSX AI Factory capacity. Ooredoo Group is leading the venture with approximately US$800 million committed to its development.
Taken together, the two announcements position Indosat as a central actor in Indonesia’s state-backed AI buildout, pushing sovereign computing capacity and university-level talent development simultaneously.
The NVAITC model pairs a major telecom’s GPU infrastructure with a flagship national university. That structure could serve as a template for other emerging markets seeking to localize AI development rather than simply consume products built elsewhere.
The initiative is explicitly designed to develop AI that addresses Indonesia’s most urgent national priorities, not just to train a workforce for foreign platforms.
