South Asia Investor Review

Data Vault and Telenor Pakistan have launched the nation's first dedicated AI data center in Karachi. It is designed to support startups, researchers, and government agencies with high-performance computing and GPU-as-a-service offerings. It is equipped with more than 3,000 Nvidia's highest performance H100 and H200 GPUs for which the Trump Administration issued export licenses. These GPUs cost from $40,000 to $60,000 each, making the Nvidia chips the biggest chunk of the investment made in this AI data center. Other data centers in Pakistan also support  AI  workloads but this new data center in Karachi is specially designed for AI. It puts the country on a short list of only a handful of nations with locally hosted AI data centers. Pakistanis rank among the world's top five users of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, securing the fourth spot among 21 nations surveyed by the Schwartz Reisman Institute. The local hosting of data in Pakistan ensures data sovereignty to comp...

The World Bank researchers have recently concluded that 88 per cent live in urban areas. Their conclusion is based on satellite imagery and the Degree of Urbanization (DoU) methodology. The official Pakistani figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) put the current level of urbanization at 39%. The source of this massive discrepancy is the government's reliance on administrative boundaries rather than population density and settlement patterns, according to the World Bank working  research paper  titled  "When Does a Village Become a Town?".  Urbanization in Pakistan. Source: World Bank Urban areas are characterized by high population density, while rural areas are sparsely populated with more open space. Major differences include urban areas having more commercial development, diverse job opportunities, and a faster pace of life, while rural areas often focus on agriculture and have a slower pace of life with closer-knit communities but may face c...

The Indian government reported faster-than-expected GDP growth of 8.2% for the September quarter. It came as a surprise to many economists who were expecting a slowdown based on the recent high-frequency indicators such as consumer goods sales and durable goods production, as well as two-wheeler sales. At the same time, The International Monetary Fund expressed doubts about the Indian government's GDP data.  The IMF has recently expressed doubts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP government's GDP data. It has particularly questioned the government's statistical methodologies, inflation measurement, and the estimates of the informal economy used in reporting the country's gross domestic product. Professor Arun Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University believes the IMF's concerns are valid. He thinks the real size of India's economy is only half of what is officially claimed.  “The economy is almost 50% wrong – when the government says it’s $3.8 trillion, my...

Pakistan's benchmark index KSE-100 has soared nearly 40% so far in 2025, becoming Asia's best performing market, thanks largely to phenomenal growth of retail investors. About 36,000 new trading accounts in the South Asian country were opened in the September quarter, compared to 23,600 new registrations just three months ago, according to Topline Securities, a brokerage house in Pakistan.  Broad and deep participation in capital markets is essential for economic growth and wealth distribution in any country.  Pakistan's KSE-100 Index Chart. Source: Bloomberg Increase in trading accounts is helping inflows into local equity mutual funds as well. As much as 16% of total assets managed by asset management companies is now invested in stocks at the end of September, up from 9% at the start of the year, according to data from the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan, as recently reported by  Bloomberg .  Pakistan Investment Accounts Growth. Source: Bloomberg Massive...

Pakistan recently held its second International Maritime Expo and Conference (PIMEC-25) in Karachi where it announced ambitious plans to expand its maritime sector and boost its blue economy. It is an initiative of the  Pakistan Navy , organized under the patronage of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.  The country plans to invest a $100 billion in maritime development by expanding its national shipping fleet, building three new deep sea ports, adding a new shipyard at Gwadar, modernizing its fisheries, and upgrading maritime education. The plan called "Maritime @100" focuses on turning Pakistan into a regional maritime hub for trade, energy, food, and sustainability.  It aims to increase the sector's GDP contribution from the current 0.4%-0.8% to 4% by 2047. PIMEC 2025. Source: Lovin Karachi Pakistan has a 1,046 kilometers long coastline on the Arabian Sea with maritime sovereignty over 200 nautical miles deep Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and 150 nautical miles of C...

DreamBig, a fabless semiconductor company founded by NED University alumnus Sohail Syed, has been acquired by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) for $265 million. The Silicon Valley-based startup is developing networking chips for data centers, with hardware specifically designed to run AI applications. The startup  does not manufacture its own chips but instead licenses its designs to other semiconductor companies. It has had a partnership with Samsung’s foundry division to bring its hardware to market.  Sohail Syed, Founder and CEO of DreamBig Semiconductors Here's how DreamBig Semiconductor describes itself on its  website : "DreamBig Semiconductor is a chiplet-based networking company dedicated to providing comprehensive, high throughput solutions for the AI, Datacenter, edge compute and Automotive markets. Headquartered in San Jose, CA, USA, we have over 200 employees globally and partnerships with the largest semiconductor companies in the world.  Founded by RDMA exp...