Russia’s Yandex plans to invest in Indonesia’s AI, minister says

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Russia’s internet giant Yandex plans to invest in Indonesia’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, the Southeast Asian country’s communications and digital minister said.

Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s communications minister, met Alexander Popovskiy, head of Yandex’s international search division, on Thursday and said the company expressed its plan to “widen the search engine platform in Indonesia,” according to a statement distributed by the ministry on Friday.

It did not provide details on what the investment entails or the size of the potential investment.

The ministry did not immediately respond when asked about the investment’s size or time frame.

Yandex, known as “Russia’s Google”, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company develops its own large language models and is one of Russia’s leading companies in AI.

But the industry’s development in Russia faces challenges as the West has sought to restrict the country’s access to technologies that could help it sustain its war against Ukraine, and as major global producers of microchips have halted exports to Russia.

Indonesia, which has a massive tech-savvy young population, has attracted interest from several global tech firms in recent months.

AI chip leader Nvidia and Indonesia’s telco firm PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison plan to build an artificial intelligence centre in Central Java this year, worth $200 million, Indonesia’s previous communications minister said in April.

Microsoft said earlier this year it will invest $1.7 billion over the next four years into expanding cloud services and artificial intelligence in Indonesia, including building data centres.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Additional reporting by Alexander Marrow in London; Editing by Miyoung Kim and David Evans)