A data center and cloud platform has been launched in Papua New Guinea by Datec PNG and Telikom PNG.

As reported by EMTV, this is the country's first AI-ready data center - dubbed Kumul Cloud Infinity - and will offer sovereign cloud computing and AI services.

At the data center launch event, Datec chairman Moses Maladina noted that the facility has been equipped with Nvidia H200 GPUs.

How many GPUs the site has, and the IT capacity or size of the data center, have not been shared. DCD has reached out to Datec for more information.

He said: "We now have the capability here in PNG to run AI workloads, analyze large amounts of information, and support sophisticated AI applications, while at the same time providing cloud computing and data storage services required by Government, state-owned enterprises, and private businesses."

The company is now working on a second data center in Lae to provide geographic redundancy. No timeline has been provided for that project.

Datec provides ICT services in Papua New Guinea, including data center services. The company's website does not detail its data center footprint.

According to DataCenterMap, PNG is currently home to just two data centers, both operated by PNG DataCo.

The island country, located in Oceania, has historically seen most data stored offshore, with Telikom Group CEO Amos Tepi noting in a LinkedIn post: "Since digital technology arrived in PNG, almost 100 percent of our data has been managed and stored abroad. For Government agencies, banks, hospitals, universities, businesses and citizens, this raised questions about location, governing laws, access and restoration during disruptions, and national control over strategically valuable data.

"Kumul Cloud Infinity provides a credible national response. Hosting systems and data within PNG’s jurisdiction advances data residency and gives organizations greater control, confidence and visibility while supporting national resilience and innovation."

SCX.ai and DDN partner for sovereign AI inferencing cloud in Australia

In Australia, this week has seen AI infrastructure company SCX.ai teaming up with DataDirect Networks to develop a sovereign AI inferencing cloud in the country.

The partnership will bring together SCX's ASIC-based infrastructure and DDN's Infinia data intelligence platform to offer Australian enterprises, government agencies, and research institutions a cloud platform for inferencing workloads that remain within Australia's borders.

SCX already has a sovereign AI node comprised of SambaNova processors deployed at Equinix's SY5 data center in Sydney, which will see DDN's Infinia platform integrated. A second node is targeted to be operational by the end of 2026.

"For the first time, Australian organizations have access to a fully domestic, enterprise-grade AI cloud that scales effortlessly," said SCX founder and CEO David Keane. "By integrating DDN's world-class data platforms into our architecture, we are ensuring that our infrastructure can handle the most data-intensive workloads on the planet. This partnership supercharges our mission to deliver advanced AI entirely onshore, without compromising speed, security or sovereignty."

"Sovereign AI isn't just about where data resides; it's about whether a nation can operate AI at scale, efficiently and without compromise," added DDN CTO Sven Oehme.

"Our partnership with SCX brings together purpose-built inferencing infrastructure with DDN's Infinia data platform to remove the single biggest barrier to AI performance: the data layer. By eliminating I/O bottlenecks and enabling extreme concurrency with sub-millisecond latency, we're fundamentally changing the economics of inference – delivering higher utilization, lower cost per token and true enterprise-grade sovereignty. This is how countries turn AI ambition into real, operational capability."

SCX.as recently went public on the Australian Securities Exchange with an AU$40 million (US$28.73m) IPO.

In other cloud news:

• CoEdge and Datenfarmen Center are partnering on a sovereign cloud 'ecosystem' in India. The two are planning to deliver AI-ready cloud infrastructure across the country. Datafarmen is providing the data centers while CoEdge is offering the cloud platform, GPUs and CPUs, and AI inferencing services.
• Saints & Masters have launched Onam Cloud in India. The Kochi-based tech company's platform uses Equinix's global network and enables companies to connect to Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud without routing over the public Internet.
• 3verest, a sovereign healthcare cloud with deployments across Australia, the UK, Germany, the US, Canada, and the EU, is using Equinix's Fabric Geo Zones to build sovereign AI infrastructure for healthcare organizations. As reported by Data Centre News, this will enable healthcare workers to adopt AI for various use cases while keeping data and prompts within the correct jurisdiction.