8APRIL, 2024As part of its Southeast Asian development strategy, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) has revealed plans to construct a $200 million artificial intelligence (AI) facility in Indonesia.What Happened: For this initiative, Nvidia is collaborating with the leading local telecommunications company, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. According to Indonesia's Communication and Information Technology Minister, Budi Arie Setiadi, the AI center, which will be situated in Surakarta, Central Java region, is anticipated to improve local telecommunications infrastructure and foster digital talent, as reported by CNBC on Friday.The second-biggest mobile carrier in Indonesia, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, has demonstrated a willingness to integrate Nvidia's most recent chip architecture, Blackwell, into its system.This action is a part of Nvidia's larger Southeast Asian expansion, which is driven by the region's growing digital economy and rising data consumption. Nvidia and Singtel, a Singaporean telecom company, worked together earlier this year to integrate AI capabilities in data centers located around Southeast Asia.Why It Matters: The timing of Nvidia's entry into Southeast Asia is crucial. A $3.87 billion investment by SK Hynix in a U.S. chip packaging plant demonstrates the company's global commitment to chip manufacturing.However, given AI's reliance on chip manufacturing, the recent earthquake in Taiwan has sparked worries about the technology's future. Meanwhile, Malaysia has become a major center for semiconductor production as a result of geopolitical concerns between the United States and China.The global semiconductor business has also been reshaped by Taiwanese chip makers' expansion into Japan. Nvidia's decision to build an AI center in Indonesia in the midst of these changes demonstrates its resolve to expand its footprint throughout Southeast Asia. NVIDIA EXPANDS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA BY INVESTING $200 MILLION IN INDONESIA'S AI CENTERMonday saw a drop in oil prices of more than $1 a barrel, with Brent falling below $90, as Middle East tensions decreased following Israel's withdrawal of further troops from southern Gaza and its commitment to new negotiations on a possible six-month truce.By 00:53 GMT, Brent oil futures had dropped $1.70, or 1.9%, to $89.47 per barrel. The price of a barrel of U.S. West Texas Intermediate oil was $85.29, down $1.62 or 1.9%.According to IG market analyst Tony Sycamore, Israel's announcement that it has withdrew all but one brigade of its forces from the Southern Gaza Strip looks to have been the impetus. This is probably due to mounting international pressure and an attempt to ease tensions following the death of key Iranian commanders in Syria last week.In an effort to defuse tensions in the Middle East that caused oil prices to spike by more than 4% last week due to fears of supply interruption, Israel and Hamas dispatched delegations to Egypt for new negotiations on a possible truce in advance of the Eid holidays.Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Sunday that his country is prepared to deal with any situation that can occur with Iran, after Tehran's promise to take revenge for the April 1 killings of Iranian generals.At least one contractor was killed on Saturday when fire broke out on an offshore platform run by Pemex, the national oil corporation of Mexico. This follows Pemex's request in April for its trading unit to halt crude shipments of up to 436,000 barrels per day.However, in its base case scenario, which assumes existing strong demand, no more geopolitical shocks to the oil supply, and that rising spare capacity would push OPEC+ to raise output in the third quarter, Goldman Sachs analysts estimate Brent to continue below $100 per barrel. OIL DROPS BY ABOUT 2% AS TENSIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUBSIDETOP STORIES
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