Du expects GPUs-as-a-service market growing in the UAE amid AI boom

Telecoms company seeks opportunities in maturing UAE market amid rush of requests for processors to rent

Jasim Al Awadi, chief information and communications technology officer of du, addresses the company's Envision conference in Dubai on Tuesday. The National

Dubai telecom operator du is expecting the GPUs-as-a-service market to gain traction in the UAE, as companies look for more cost-effective ways to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities into their operations, a senior company executive has said.

GPU-as-a-service is a cloud-based model where high-performance graphics processing units, the workhorse of the AI boom, most notably brought to the spotlight by Nvidia, are rented to users.

Du, which launched GPU-as-a-service in May, has been “overwhelmed” with requests for this, signalling a maturing market in the UAE, chief information and communications technology officer Jasim Al Awadi told The National.

The rate of adoption in the Emirates is “so quick … and market maturity will become better when it comes to its usage”, he said on the sidelines of du's Envision conference in Dubai on Tuesday.

“The issue is not with the demand; the issue is how you can get the GPUs and how many GPUs you can have,” he added.

Du is also open to deploying large language models on a bigger scale when the “right” opportunities arrive, Mr Al Awadi said.

LLMs are the algorithms that use deep learning to analyse large amounts of data to create content. The company recently announced a partnership with Microsoft, Nokia, Khalifa University and the UN's International Telecommunication Union to launch what it said is the first Arabic AI model to provide its customer services.

That is an internal du service, and a bigger LLM roll-out is a step it will make “if it makes sense”, Mr Al Awadi said.

“We are accelerating our infrastructure because [data centres] are one of our core strengths. We do have LLMs internally, but on a very small scale,” he added.

Fahad Al Hassawi, chief executive of du, delivers his keynote address at the company's Envision conference in Dubai on September. The National

“But once we see that those LLMs can materialise, of course we'll push on full force.”

Mr Al Awadi, however, did not elaborate if such a move would be made in its consumer services portfolio, which has been increasing as the UAE's economy has grown and its population increase.

Du is seeking aggressive expansion and has boosted its operations and services over the past year as market dynamics change with emerging technologies, including AI, the cloud and big data.

Last October, du unveiled du Tech and du Infra – in a major shake-up to its business-to-business operations aimed at addressing growing demand for digital transformation services in the UAE.

The introduction of the sub-brands will allow the company to dedicate more resources to business segments and is the next step in the company's transformation and expansion, chief executive Fahad Al Hassawi told The National at the time.

Du is also open to expanding its noncore portfolio outside the UAE, including data centres, financial technology and other information and communications technology segments.

Du is continuing to increase its investments across its portfolio, Mr Al Awadi said, without providing figures.

Du said it is also on track to beat its record 2024 income after it reported a more than 25 per cent annual jump in its second-quarter profit and revenue for the period rose 8.6 per cent.

This week, it launched a secondary share sale offer that could raise up to Dh3.39 billion, as one of its main investors reduces its holding.

Mamoura Diversified Global Holding, a unit of Mubadala Investment Company, is selling 342 million shares, representing 7.55 per cent of du’s share capital and 75 per cent of Mamoura’s stake in the company.

The price range has been set between Dh9 and Dh9.90 a share, with the final offer price to be announced on September 15.