‘To integrate AI, a complete overhaul is not always necessary’, says Core42’s Talal Al Kaissi

Dubai: Think of AI, and G42 would be one of the first names to pop up as the UAE trendsetters in defining this particular technology. G42 has the alliances – with likes of Microsoft and Nvidia – the funds available and the smarts to make AI deliver on the huge expectations that’s building around it.

Dig deeper into the highly diversified G42 and you come up on another AI-focused nugget, Core42. This is the company that will do all the hardwiring for AI processes and related hardware to work.

Because, at its core, AI solutions are about seamlessly delivering results for clients, faster and smoother.

In an interview with ‘Gulf News’, Talal Al Kaissi, Executive VP and Chief Government Affairs & Partnerships Officer at Core42, gives a roadmap on how the company plans to make things happen. The AI way.

Over the last 12 months, you are one of a handful of UAE companies that have gone all in on AI. Have you now defined the specific areas of AI you want to be in?

Indeed. We are all in – with conviction.

We aim to fuel the insatiable curiosity of humanity by providing next-generation digital infrastructure in cloud and AI compute. As part of the G42 family, we are collectively in the business of manufacturing, and deploying intelligence, and on a mission to bring what we call the ‘Intelligence Grid’ to life.

This is the infrastructure that will redefine how AI is distributed, accessed, and utilized, much like electricity is today.

Just as the first electrical systems had generation, distribution, and regulation, G42 is providing a full stack: the ‘generation’ is underpinned with data centers, ensuring scalable compute power.

The ‘distribution’ comes from our digital infrastructure in the form of sovereign cloud platforms and our next generation AI Cloud. And ‘regulation’ is embedded in our approach to digital sovereignty, ensuring data remains under control of respective owners, predominantly the public sector and regulated industries.

The G42 operating businesses then deploy applications and solutions leveraging this foundation infrastructure in a variety of industries.

Recently, you aligned with Nvidia and Microsoft for your AI solutions development. Would you consider taking on more hardware/software partners?

Partnerships are not a luxury but a necessity in achieving scale. We deepened the partnership with Microsoft to leverage the Azure Cloud platform and added a proprietary tool. We call it ‘Insight’, which is a sovereign controls platform, the combination forms the basis of our Sovereign Public Cloud offering.

We announced the expansion of our Next-Generation AI Cloud offering by deploying Nvidia GPUs in the UAE in a regulated technology environment that we created.

A key differentiator for Core42 is our infrastructure, which provides optimal price performance for specific workloads – whether leveraging Nvidia GPUs, Cerebras AI accelerators, Qualcomm Inference accelerators, AMD, VAST’s Data Platform, or other solutions.

These offerings eliminate the need for customers to own physical infrastructure and provide the tools necessary to navigate complex data sovereignty and regulatory requirements.

Recently, you had the project win from FAB. As things stand now, is it all enterprise-level clients that are onboarding AI solutions?

While enterprise clients like FAB are indeed leading the charge in adopting AI solutions, our goal is to make AI accessible and beneficial for a wide range of clients, regardless of their size.

The main customer persona we target are the public sector and regulated industries. Increasingly, we are finding that most enterprises and organizations are looking for the same thing: access to compute, and a safe mechanism to derive value out of their most prized asset.

As you see it, will AI investments require enterprise clients to clear out some of their legacy systems and install new ones to accommodate AI?

Integrating AI into legacy systems can certainly present challenges, but a complete overhaul is not always necessary.

At Core42, we are focused on providing solutions that integrate seamlessly with our clients’ existing infrastructure. In cases where modernization is required, we have managed services and digital transformation journey offerings that help guide clients in upgrading only the components that are essential for AI deployment.

Additionally, we’ve introduced several products that empower organizations across sectors to access AI infrastructure and capabilities. This includes our Compass API platform, providing inference services using Azure Open AI GPT, leveraging the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) to execute language-related tasks and generate responses and predictions based on natural language input.

Through Compass API we enable seamless AI integration by offering pre-optimized models and tools that fit effortlessly into existing infrastructure. This ensures that organizations can harness the power of AI without the need for disruptive system.

Whether it’s crypto or AI, there is constant chatter about the heavy requirement for more power to operate the systems. Is that a concern?

We are lucky to live in a country where access to clean energy is relatively plentiful. That said, there is also a strong push from the leadership of the country and our company to ensure we are mindful of the growing impact to the environment, the global efforts of unlocking AI’s incredible potential, can have.

As a deployer of digital infrastructure, we take these environmental challenges seriously and have made significant efforts to minimize our carbon footprint.