Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has convinced another country to use his company’s chips to power its “sovereign AI” ambitions. Thailand’s Siam.AI Cloud, a cloud-computing company based in Bangkok, will host the cluster, which will be running the Thai language “OpenThaiGPT” large language model.
Nvidia has been marketing its AI hardware to countries around the world, touting the importance of sovereign nations owning their own domestic AI tools to lessen their dependence on allies and adversaries.
“The data of Thailand… it belongs to the Thai people. It is your natural resource,” Huang said, according to the Bangkok Post.
Siam.AI Cloud announced partnerships with local universities and startups to ensure access to the Nvidia computing cluster, which is powered by the company’s in-demand H100 GPUs.
Nvidia says in its marketing that a country owning its own AI models and computing resources can lead to economic and scientific breakthroughs, but it also allows governments to control what ground truth goes into an AI model.
Amnesty International notes that Thailand has a history of cracking down on peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and is especially sensitive to any criticism of the Thai monarchy, which can lead to stiff jail time.
