Ooredoo leads $800M funding round for AI startup Zankore, targeting 1GW of NVIDIA DSX AI Factory capacity in Southeast Asia; Peak XV, EDBI join $700M round for Lumilens

Ooredoo is making a significant move in the AI sector by leading an $800 million funding round for Zankore, which aims to develop 1 gigawatt of NVIDIA DSX AI Factory capacity in Southeast Asia. The investment positions Ooredoo as a key player in the region's burgeoning AI infrastructure market, particularly as Gulf states ramp up their investments in AI and data infrastructure.¹²⁵

Zankore will initially launch in Indonesia and is projected to deliver 200 megawatts of AI capacity by the first half of 2027. The platform will utilize NVIDIA DSX MaxLPS technology, enhancing computing output by up to 40% within the same power budget. This initial investment is expected to generate approximately $600 million in cumulative EBITDA over its first five years.³

In a parallel development, Lumilens, a US-based AI infrastructure startup, has secured a $700 million funding round, bringing its total funding to over $900 million. The round, co-led by Peak XV and EDBI, values Lumilens at $5.51 billion. Founded by Ankur Singla, Lumilens focuses on developing advanced optical interconnect technology to connect thousands of GPUs into a single AI system. Singla noted, “The constraint on AI has shifted from how many GPUs you can buy to how many you can connect.”⁴⁶⁷⁸