Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison’s ICT arm Lintasarta announced the launch of GPU Merdeka, its new GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) that offers a sovereign AI cloud running on Nvidia GPUs and software.
Lintasarta says GPU Merdeka will provide AI cloud infrastructure and platforms for Indonesian businesses, offering access to Nvidia’s GPUs and AI software with a configuration of 8x Nvidia H100 SXM Tensor Core GPUs in one server.
Lintasarta says this configuration provides capabilities for generative AI and accelerated computing. Meanwhile, the H100 GPU features third-generation RT Cores, which Lintasarta says is ideal for rendering, 3D modelling, and CAD applications.
All of this will be hosted in what Lintasarta claims is “one of the highest-density data centers in the market”. GPU Merdeka’s AI data centre infrastructure supports up to 20 KW per rack, data centre connectivity with up to 3.2 Tbps Infiniband RDMA per server, and Nvidia GPUDirect access to storage, which enhances overall service performance. GPU Merdeka customers will get free access to internet traffic up to 100 Gbps with integrated DDoS protection.
Lintasarta also said it will introduce an “AI Nation Program”, which aims to build a sustainable AI ecosystem to accelerate adoption and development of AI technology.
Bayu Hanantasena, president director and CEO of Lintasarta, said at the launch event in Jakarta on Wednesday that GPU Merdeka is a step towards empowering Indonesia through advanced technology solutions to help companies from various industrial sectors accelerate digital transformation.
“This new service launch helps propel Indonesia to the forefront of the global AI cloud community,” he said.
The launch of GPU Merdaka has been in the works since February, when Indosat signed an MoU with Nvidia at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona to collaborate on establishing Indonesia as a leading player in the AI sector. The MoU included plans for Lintasarta to launch a GPUaaS offering.
The GPU Merdaka launch also comes two days after the Bridge Alliance said that it will extend SingTel’s GPUaaS offering to enterprises across Southeast Asia via its alliance member operators. Indosat’s rival telco Telkomsel is one of three alliance members who will be first to offer the service (the other two being Thailand’s AIS and Malaysia’s Maxis).