MUSCAT: The latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) Readiness Report for the Sultanate of Oman by Unesco proposes the establishment of a National AI Supercomputer Centre as a cornerstone of the country’s long-term ambition to harness AI for economic diversification, job creation and national development.
Central to the proposal is a dedicated High-Performance Computing (HPC) facility that would function as a national laboratory for advanced AI research, Large Language Model (LLM) training and data-intensive simulations across strategic sectors including energy and climate modelling. The report positions the initiative as foundational to a broader National AI Infrastructure Strategy aimed at unifying Oman’s currently fragmented data centre assets into a cohesive, sovereign ecosystem.
At present, Omani researchers and start-ups depend heavily on foreign cloud providers — a model the report describes as cost-prohibitive and strategically risky. Beyond capital outflows, reliance on overseas infrastructure raises concerns around data sovereignty, particularly in relation to sensitive national datasets. By building domestic high-performance computing capacity, Oman would retain data within its borders while lowering R&D barriers and strengthening technological sovereignty through localised, sustainable computing power.
The report also outlines a road map for positioning Oman as a Regional Data and AI Inference Hub, capitalising on its geostrategic location at the confluence of major global connectivity routes. While the Sultanate of Oman currently serves largely as a transit corridor for international subsea cable traffic, the report argues that significantly greater value can be captured by processing and hosting AI workloads domestically.
Leveraging its extensive subsea cable network, Oman could evolve into a net exporter of cloud and AI inference services serving markets across the GCC, East Africa and Central and South Asia. By upgrading submarine cable capacity, strengthening interconnections and expanding edge data centres, the country would be able to deliver low-latency inference services capable of supporting high-performance digital workloads across neighbouring regions.
To support this transition, the report recommends incentivising the development of hyperscale data centres in close proximity to subsea cable landing stations. Such adjacency would enable near-zero-latency processing of large AI workloads for international clients, creating a competitive edge in real-time inference services.
Further recommendations include upgrading terrestrial fibre networks to enhance cross-border connectivity within the GCC, ensuring Omani data centres can operate as preferred hosting environments for regional AI applications.
Equally important, the report calls for the creation of a Digital Special Economic Zone (DSEZ) regulatory framework offering competitive tax incentives and optimised data transfer protocols. This would encourage international firms to deploy and host AI models within Omani sovereign cloud infrastructure, reinforcing the country’s ambitions to become a regional AI powerhouse.
Formally unveiled last month, the AI Readiness Assessment report is the result of a collaborative arrangement between Oman authorities, represented by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology and Unesco. It reflects a joint effort to assess and advance Oman’s preparedness for the ethical, inclusive and sustainable adoption of AI in alignment with Oman Vision 2040 and Unesco’s global mandate on the ethics of AI.
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