Sourced records of Chinese AI deployments across the Global South and the Middle East

Indonesian consumer-fintech group founded in 2016 by Chinese founders William Li (CEO) and Gordon Hu (CTO); its predecessor Silvrr began in Hong Kong in 2014 providing cross-border remittances for domestic workers. Business spans instalment consumer credit, wealth management and digital banking. The company states that all business operations rely on algorithms and AI, covering account transfers, KYC, risk assessment, anti-fraud and anti-money laundering, with R&D investment exceeding USD 28 million a year (CEO statement, KrASIA, 2 July 2020) — this AI/algorithm attribution rests solely on the founder's own account and has no third-party corroboration. In 2019 Akulaku bought an 8.9% stake in Indonesian commercial bank PT Bank Yudha Bhakti (BBYB) from Gozco Capital for Rp 158 billion, becoming a minority shareholder and committing to staged investment totalling up to Rp 500 billion; the bank was renamed PT Bank Neo Commerce Tbk in 2020. The founder's claimed Ping An Insurance background is removed from the description because its only source is dead (see notes).

In March 2018, Alibaba Cloud's Jakarta data centre began operations, making it the first international public cloud service provider to operate locally in Indonesia; it subsequently added a second and third data centre in 2019 and 2021 respectively, providing local enterprises — particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and startups — with cloud and AI services including elastic computing, databases, machine learning and data analytics.

As a technology and strategic partner, Ant Group has exported to DANA — the Indonesian e-wallet controlled by Emtek and launched in 2018 — system architecture derived from Alipay, the OceanBase distributed database, and credit-scoring technology, supporting close to 200 million registered users, DANA Paylater credit, and QRIS cross-border payments (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand); in 2023 the two parties jointly launched the SisBerdaya programme to empower women entrepreneurs.

Hikvision operates in Indonesia through a local entity (with a Country Manager) and its distribution partner PT Pasifik Teknologi Indonesia; in 2018 it launched an AI-based smart-city solution in Jakarta covering object detection, facial recognition, automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) and pedestrian-flow counting, and states that it has participated in smart-city development in cities including Jakarta, Tangerang and Surabaya. According to trade media, it also developed a customised AIoT traffic-violation enforcement solution for the Indonesian traffic police.

In 2020, Kuaishou launched SnackVideo, its overseas short-video app, in Indonesia, adopting an inclusive recommendation algorithm; the company states that content distribution does not discriminate on the basis of user identity or popularity. Following its Hong Kong IPO in February 2021, it stepped up investment in the Indonesian market; according to data released by Ipsos, SnackVideo had approximately 43 million monthly active users in Indonesia in 2022, making it the country's second-largest short-video platform, and it operates SnackVideo's local advertising and creator ecosystem (Native Ads/Live Streaming Ads/SOLO/CID).

Tencent Cloud launched its first Jakarta data centre in April 2021, with initial customers including Bank Neo Commerce and JOOX; its third data centre came online in 2025, alongside an announced investment of approximately USD 500 million in Indonesia by 2030. Since September 2024 it has partnered with the GoTo Group to migrate GoTo's on-demand services system into the local data centre, emphasising data sovereignty and localised compliance while supporting local enterprise AI applications.

Huawei Cloud's Jakarta Region, comprising three availability zones, went into operation in 2022, and a fourth availability zone was announced for addition in 2026. It has opened up its full-stack AI capabilities (including ModelArts, the Versatile agent platform, and others), and together with local partners launched the 'Indonesia Government-Enterprise AI Partnership Alliance,' signing talent cooperation agreements with more than 100 universities and over 20 government departments, and has cumulatively trained more than 100,000 digital talents, positioning itself to build an 'ASEAN AI Engine.'

TikTok (a subsidiary of ByteDance) completed a controlling integration of Tokopedia, the e-commerce platform under GoTo, on January 31, 2024, acquiring a 75.01% stake for approximately US$840 million and committing to an additional investment of over US$1.5 billion. It merged TikTok Shop's Indonesia business into the licensed entity PT Tokopedia, driving content commerce through recommendation algorithms, and provided support to local micro, small, and medium-sized merchants.