Indonesia is taking charge of its AI future.

This week, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi), Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat or IOH), NVIDIA and Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) launched the UGM Indosat NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC) in Yogyakarta — the country’s first university-based AI technology center. Established under Indonesia’s AI Center of Excellence initiative, UGM Indosat NVAITC brings government, industry and academia together to develop AI that addresses Indonesia’s most urgent national priorities.

“The Indonesia AI Center of Excellence reflects our long-term vision to position Indonesia as a nation that not only adopts AI but also develops and contributes AI innovations to the world,” said Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs. “Through initiatives like this, we are laying the foundations of Indonesia’s AI sovereignty and ensuring AI becomes a driver of economic growth, national competitiveness and solutions to Indonesia’s most pressing challenges.”

“UGM is committed to supporting Indonesia’s AI ambitions through education, research, and innovation that deliver real societal impact,” said Prof. dr. Ova Emilia, Ph.D. “This initiative supports national priorities in higher education, research downstreaming and talent development by accelerating the adoption of AI and preparing future-ready Indonesian talent.”

Compute That Belongs to the Country

Powered by NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform and GPU Merdeka — Indosat’s sovereign GPU-as-a-service platform — UGM Indosat NVAITC gives UGM’s researchers and students access to enterprise-grade accelerated computing, AI software, open source, pretrained models, development frameworks and technical mentorship. It also connects Indonesian researchers to a worldwide ecosystem of expertise.

“At Indosat, we believe no Indonesian should be left behind in the AI era,” said Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. “Through UGM Indosat NVAITC, we are bringing the best of global AI technologies and expertise to Indonesia, while expanding access for the ecosystem of researchers, students, startups, and innovators across the country. By strengthening AI readiness and empowering Indonesian talent, we aim to support the government’s vision for AI and help position Indonesia not only as a user of AI technologies, but as a nation that develops and contributes AI innovations to the world.”

The opportunity is real. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country, with researchers and developers working on problems of scale and urgency. What they’ve historically lacked is access to the compute, models and infrastructure to move from insight to impact.

“Indonesia is home to an extraordinary community of researchers, developers and innovators with the potential to shape the future of AI,” said Marc Hamilton, vice president of solutions architecture and engineering at NVIDIA. “From healthcare and agriculture to disaster preparedness, the opportunities for AI to drive real change are immense. Through UGM Indosat NVIDIA AI Technology Center, NVIDIA is committed to equipping Indonesian talent with NVIDIA Nemotron open models and expertise to turn that potential into innovation with local and global impact.”

AI for Indonesian Challenges

Three initial projects define what this center is for, focused on healthcare, agriculture and natural disaster response.

Indonesia records over 1 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases every year. TB is curable — but it kills when it goes undetected. Detection in rural and underserved areas has depended on equipment and expertise unavailable at the community level. UGM’s Faculty of Medicine Public Health and Nursing team, led by dr. Dian Kesumapramudya Nurputra, M.Sc, Ph.D, SpA , is developing an AI-powered electronic screening technology — eNose-TB — that screens for TB by analyzing breath samples. The goal: affordable, fast, accessible screening that reaches patients in remote clinics and villages — no specialist or expensive lab required. 

“As researchers, we have always believed that technology developed in Indonesia can solve Indonesian challenges,” said Dian. “Through the center, access to world-class AI infrastructure and expertise will help us accelerate our research and bring us closer to our dream of developing affordable and accessible healthcare technologies that can improve lives across Indonesia.”

Agriculture employs nearly 30% of Indonesia’s workforce. SmartAgri uses multimodal AI — combining satellite imagery, sensor data and local agricultural knowledge — alongside edge computing to deliver precision farming for Indonesian terrain, crops and smallholders. These AI-powered recommendations help farmers know exactly when and how to irrigate, delivering impact that compounds over time.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, facing more natural disaster risk than almost anywhere on earth. Tech4Disaster is building a geospatial AI platform using NVIDIA accelerated computing to process satellite and sensor data at speed — giving communities and emergency responders earlier warning, better situational awareness and faster coordination tools when disaster strikes.

Learn more about the UGM Indosat NVIDIA AI Technology Center.