Countries / Asia-Pacific and Middle East

Pakistan

Name: Pakistan
Address: PK

Pakistan approved a National AI Policy in 2025, allocated surplus grid power to data centres and crypto mining, and is building a cloud accreditation regime tied to sensitive-data localisation.

The Federal Cabinet approved a National AI Policy on 30 July 2025, and the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication describes an infrastructure pillar with a national compute grid, shared datasets, AI hubs and cloud resources. The Finance Ministry announced on 31 May 2025 a first-phase allocation of 2,000 MW of surplus grid power to bitcoin mining and AI data centres. A cloud provider accreditation scheme was reported on 26 May 2026, requiring sensitive data to be stored on servers in the country. The Personal Data Protection Bill remains unenacted as far as a 2026 law-firm guide states. We could not name specific data centre facilities with capacity.

AI policy and activity

The AI policy has six pillars and sets up a National AI Innovation Fund and an AI Council. Compute is stated as an aim in the policy summary on the ministry page, not as a funded programme with figures.

Power and grid

No named data centre site was sourced; DCD (31 May 2025) reports only that Pakistan has 22 data centres across Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, without capacity. The 2,000 MW figure above is an announced allocation of surplus grid power, not built or contracted data centre load. No primary grid operator page was read.

Rules and programmes

Rules and programmes
Instrument	Kind	Status	What it does
National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025 Read the cited source	Policy	In force from 30 July 2025	Primary for the content (MoITT page: six pillars, infrastructure pillar with a national compute grid, centralised datasets, AI hubs and cloud resources, a National AI Innovation Fund). The page gives no date. The cabinet approval date of 30 July 2025 is Reported by Express Tribune (https://tribune.com.pk/story/2558712/cabinet-approves-hajj-2026-national-ai-policies), which also reports an AI Council and an Action Plan.
Allocation of 2,000 MW of surplus grid power to bitcoin mining and AI data centres Read the cited source	Programme	In force from 31 May 2025	Reported. DCD, 31 May 2025: announced by the Finance Ministry as a first phase, led by the Pakistan Crypto Council, drawn from grid surplus. We did not find the ministry original or any report of power actually delivered.
Cloud service provider accreditation under MoITT Read the cited source	Policy	Proposed	Reported. Profit (Pakistan Today), 26 May 2026: MoITT launched accreditation; six applications received; third-party security audits required; sensitive data to be stored on servers physically in the country. The legal instrument and its status were not seen.
Personal Data Protection Bill (draft 2023) Read the cited source	Law	Proposed	Reported. Chambers Data Protection and Privacy 2026: the draft completed consultation but had not passed both houses. As drafted it would bar transfer of critical personal data abroad and set conditions for other transfers. Existing sector laws include PECA 2016.

Checked on 3 October 2026 and due for review by 1 January 2027. Many sources are trade press or law-firm summaries rather than official texts, and statuses such as reported or unconfirmed are shown as the source gives them. This is a summary, not legal advice. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us.

Cite this page

ComputeFinder. (2026, October 3). Pakistan: AI and compute. ComputeFinder. Retrieved November 14, 2026, from https://computefinder.net/countries/pakistan

BibTeX

@misc{computefinder_countries_pakistan,
  title        = {Pakistan: AI and compute},
  author       = {{ComputeFinder}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://computefinder.net/entity/cf-ctry-0058}},
  number       = {cf-ctry-0058},
  note         = {Page last checked 3 October 2026. Retrieved 14 November 2026.}
}

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Page link: https://computefinder.net/countries/pakistan. Page last checked 3 October 2026. Retrieved 14 November 2026. Cite the provider or the primary source for any fact you rely on.

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