Islamabad: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja on Friday said the inauguration of the Sky 47 data centre marked the beginning of a new economic era, where artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing, and digital infrastructure would enable Pakistan to fully utilise its natural resources, human capital, and technological potential.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of Pakistan’s largest purpose-built Sky 47 Data Centre, the minister said the future of the global AI race would not be determined merely by data but by the ability to efficiently, securely, and affordably transform data into intelligence, decisions, and actions.
She said the Sky 47 Data Centre facility represented a strategically important investment that offered Pakistan much more than servers and storage, describing it as the foundation of an “AI factory” capable of producing token intelligence – the most valuable economic unit in the AI-driven economy.
Shaza Fatima said access to high-performance computing would become essential across every major sector, including healthcare, agriculture, financial services, education, public administration, and national security, adding that the country’s future economic opportunities would increasingly depend on advanced computing infrastructure.
Referring to global industry projections, she said McKinsey estimated worldwide demand for data centres would triple by 2030, while Goldman Sachs projected electricity requirements for such facilities to increase by 160 per cent during the same period.
She said these trends presented Pakistan with an extraordinary opportunity because of its young population, talented workforce, and growing pool of engineers, developers, researchers, and entrepreneurs, who possessed both intelligence and ambition but had long lacked the necessary digital infrastructure.
The minister said facilities such as the Sky 47 data centre would provide access to storage, computing power, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and High-Performance Computing (HPC), creating the foundation for developing Large Language Models (LLMs), General Language Models (GLMs), and Small Language Models (SLMs).
She said the infrastructure would also support application development and enable innovators to deliver AI-powered solutions while allowing cloud platforms to offer GPU-as-a-Service, Compute-as-a-Service, Security-as-a-Service, and AI Capability-as-a-Service.
Shaza Fatima said the facility would help fulfil Pakistan’s national AI and digital infrastructure requirements while safeguarding the country’s digital sovereignty.
She said the government, under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Digital Nation Pakistan vision, had undertaken several key initiatives over the past two years to build the country’s digital ecosystem.
These included conducting the world’s largest 5G spectrum auction, developing digital public infrastructure, introducing right-of-way reforms to expand broadband access, doubling undersea fibre connectivity, launching AI skills programmes, and supporting AI startups through the National Incubation Centres across the country.
She said these initiatives were aimed at creating a strong digital ecosystem capable of supporting innovation, economic growth, and Pakistan’s long-term competitiveness in the global AI economy.