Indonesia’ Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs (Komdigi) is establishing the country’s AI Center of Excellence—a national initiative aimed at accelerating AI competitiveness through a strategic collaboration with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat or IOH), Cisco, and NVIDIA.
The Center of Excellence is powered by NVIDIA technology, secured by Cisco’s intelligent infrastructure, and enabled by the capabilities of Indonesia’s leading digital telcos. It represents a shared commitment to advancing AI sovereignty, building national capabilities, and enabling AI access for all Indonesians—rural and urban, corporate and startup, government and citizens.
The Indonesia AI Center of Excellence is built on six institutional pillars to drive AI advancement. These are a secure AI Sandbox for developing real-world applications to solve industry problems, trainings to certify tens of thousands of Indonesians in AI and data science, an accelerator to support local AI startups, an enterprise hub for co-creating industry use cases, a platform to develop national large language models, and a national think-tank to guide responsible, ethical AI policy rooted in local values.
“This collaboration proves that digital sovereignty can be built together. We want Indonesia to be more than just a technology market—we want it to be a home for innovation and the creation of AI technologies that are relevant to the nation’s needs,” said Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs.
The Indonesia AI Center of Excellence is expected to “supercharge” Indonesia’s AI ambitions through four strategic approaches — sovereign infrastructure, secure infrastructure, AI for All, and talent and ecosystem development.
The center is committed to equipping one million Indonesians with digital skills in networking, security, and AI by 2027.
NVIDIA will provide research support through its AI Technology Center, start-up assistance through its Inception program, and training and certification via its Deep Learning Institute.
Cisco will provide training through the Cisco Networking Academy, creating a future-ready workforce to power the digital economy as part of its commitment to equip 500,000 Indonesians by 2030.
“Democratizing AI is more important than ever,” said Ronnie Vasishta, SVP oftelecom at NVIDIA. “Through strategic collaborations, developer enablement and wireless infrastructure guidance, we’re helping Indonesia build a sustainable AI ecosystem that will help to create a blueprint for how nations can harness AI to uplift every citizen.”
