Chinese IT company Huawei has entered the bidding process for a data center construction project in Egypt. Observers expect that President Xi Jinping will lend his support to help Huawei secure the contract.
According to Bloomberg, Huawei has proposed the establishment of an AI data center for public sectors, including military and security, to the Egyptian government. The proposal includes supplying 1,408 top-tier Ascend 950 series chips for AI training in the cloud. Additionally, 600 chips from the 950 series or the earlier 910B model will be used in two inference clusters. The data center will handle both training and inference tasks, all executed using Huawei's AI semiconductors. If successful, this bid would mark the first export of Huawei's Ascend accelerators after more than a year of attempts. Huawei has also outlined a 12-month roadmap for building the necessary infrastructure.
Huawei's proposal for Egypt includes collaboration with iFlytek, a Chinese surveillance technology firm that has been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2019. iFlytek is recognized for its global competitiveness in AI image recognition.
In response to this development, the U.S. is reportedly discussing the formation of a 'U.S. consortium' through the State Department to engage with American IT companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft to prevent Huawei from winning the contract. This situation has set the stage for a competitive landscape between the U.S. and China over the Egyptian data center project. Bloomberg cited a source familiar with Huawei's internal affairs, stating, "Recently, Huawei's strategies in Africa and the global market align with the Chinese government's diplomatic efforts," adding that Huawei is actively seeking government clients in African countries, including Egypt and Kenya, focusing on sectors like education and healthcare.
President Xi Jinping is also expected to actively support Huawei's entry into Egypt. He is scheduled to visit Egypt soon for a summit with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Given the competitive nature of the data center construction project with the U.S., it is likely that Xi will advocate for cooperation during his visit. This will be Xi's first visit to Egypt in a decade. He is set to travel to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from August 30 to September 3 for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit before making a state visit to Cairo.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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