en.Wedoany.com Reported - Ukraine plans to collaborate with mobile operator Kyivstar to build domestic artificial intelligence computing capabilities, aiming to strengthen critical infrastructure during the war. Kyivstar signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine's Ministry of Economy at the Ukraine Recovery Conference held in Gdańsk.
Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov stated that parent company VEON will provide financial support for the first phase of the project, which requires at least 3 to 5 megawatts of capacity and tens of millions of dollars in funding. Komarov noted to Reuters that the largest users of AI in Ukraine are currently the military, and for national security reasons, military computing cannot be operated abroad.
The plan reflects a broader trend in Europe to reduce dependence on foreign technology infrastructure. This issue has become more urgent since Russia's invasion forced Ukraine to rely heavily on Western suppliers. Microsoft Vice President for Europe, Middle East, and Africa Jeff Bullwinkel said at the conference that after the invasion, Ukrainian data was transferred to data centers across Europe to evade Russian strikes, highlighting the war's transformative impact on the country's digital systems.
Komarov stated that Ukraine's current demand for AI computing is limited but strategically important, and Kyivstar can help local enterprises that are too small to directly attract global cloud providers. Nvidia Director of Business Development for Central and Eastern Europe Patrycja Sokalska-Pomacho said at the same event that Ukraine lacks the computing infrastructure needed to retain the value of operational, cultural, and language data domestically. Reuters reported in December that Ukraine and Kyivstar are developing an AI model based on Alphabet's Google open-source model Gemma, as part of efforts to support military and civilian operations while meeting the need for secure local processing.
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