What is Sky47 and How will Pakistan’s Largest Data Center, AI Cloud Work?

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan entered global race to build AI infrastructure with launch of Sky47 Karakoram One, the country’s largest data center and AI Cloud, as the government officials called it cornerstone of Pakistan’s digital future and national security.

The state-of-the-art facility was inaugurated in Rawalpindi by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, alongside Field Marshal Asim Munir and senior government officials. Built in partnership with Chinese telecom giant ZTE, the project is being presented as a major leap toward AI-driven governance, secure data storage, and cloud computing.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif callied the initiative historic milestone, saying similar AI-powered data centers will soon be established in Karachi and Lahore, with plans to connect all government institutions to the new digital infrastructure. He said the project would not only boost Pakistan’s technological transformation but also strengthen the country’s cybersecurity by ensuring sensitive national data remains within its borders.

IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said AI data centre is beginning of new era for AI in Pakistan, saying Sky47 houses advanced storage systems, high-performance computing infrastructure, and powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)—the specialized processors that power AI models, machine learning, and complex data analysis.

The world currently has over 12,000 data centers, and Pakistan currently operates only 22 despite its rapidly expanding digital economy. He said the country’s e-commerce sector is growing by 25 to 30 percent annually, making robust cloud infrastructure increasingly essential. The new facility can accommodate 1,000 server racks and will serve as a backbone for cloud computing, data hosting, digital services, and the secure storage of sensitive government and commercial information.

AI experts called these data centers backbone of the modern connectivity, housing thousands of powerful servers that deliver websites, applications, and digital services around the clock. Government offices, banks, and major corporations rely on such facilities to securely store and process vast amounts of data.

Global technology leaders including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft operate massive data centers worldwide, while data centers generally fall into two categories, private facilities, built for an organization’s own operations, and public cloud platforms, where businesses and individuals rent computing power and storage.

Sky47 will allow Pakistani government departments to centralize their data under one secure system, cutting dependence on overseas servers and strengthening control over access through dedicated security protocols.

AI Cloud is network of centralized servers optimized specifically for artificial intelligence workloads. He said leading global cloud providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have established extensive governance frameworks, while Pakistan’s new AI Cloud presents regulators with an opportunity to build stronger policies for data protection, oversight, and digital sovereignty.

Pakistan’s private sector has also start investing in AI infrastructure. Data Vault Pakistan, in collaboration with Telenor Pakistan, launched the country’s first sovereign AI Cloud, signaling growing momentum in the country’s digital transformation.