Indonesia telco chief warns of ‘digital colonisation’, backs China’s open-source AI


The biggest threat to middle powers in the artificial intelligence era is “digital colonisation” from expensive and proprietary AI stacks, an Indonesian telecoms executive has said, adding that China’s open-source sales pitch offers better protection for local sovereignty.

The emphasis on localisation and digital sovereignty comes as major Chinese AI cloud providers look to compete with US rivals in fast-growing Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia.

“The world is moving out of proprietary [models],” said Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO at Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, one of Indonesia’s largest telecoms firms. “Digital colonisation, or digital monopoly, is the biggest threat for any country. I see more openness from companies from China who want to be open-source, who want to respect [local] guard rails, which respect sovereignty.”

Sinha’s remarks were delivered on Tuesday at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026 in Jakarta, where he joined a panel on China-Indonesia AI cooperation alongside executives from Huawei Technologies and Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the SCMP.

The cost competitiveness of Chinese AI services compared to US counterparts is crucial for a developing country like Indonesia, according to a telco executive. Photo: Shutterstock
The cost competitiveness of Chinese AI services compared to US counterparts is crucial for a developing country like Indonesia, according to a telco executive. Photo: Shutterstock

While leading closed-source AI companies such as OpenAI also offer sovereign AI solutions to countries around the world, Chinese companies have pitched their open models as better suited for customising models to local conditions.

  • Related Posts

    Breaking | DeepSeek releases next-gen AI model with ‘world-leading’ efficiency

    DeepSeek has finally released its much-anticipated next-generation open-source foundational AI model, V4, which it said was competitive with leading US closed-source models from the likes of OpenAI and Google DeepMind.…

    Continue reading
    ChiNext, Shenzhen’s Nasdaq, emerges as investor darling as start-up indexes smash records

    An overhaul of listing and trading rules has driven a 16-year-old board for start-ups on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to an all-time high, and traders believe the listed companies’ above-average…

    Continue reading

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *