Islamabad, Feb 9 (.) Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif on Monday announced an investment of $1bn to strengthen the country’s AI infrastructure by 2030, in a bid to create a national AI ecosystem, and prep the nation for the ongoing global technological evolution.
The programme aims to introduce an AI curriculum in schools across all provinces, from the inner cities to the outmost fringe areas to ready the country’s growing youth for leadership roles in digital economy.
Making his remarks while addressing the inauguration ceremony of Indus AI Week 2026, attended by federal ministers, delegations from countries including Saudi Arabia and Türkiye and others, PM Sharif announced, “The government of Pakistan is committed to investing $1 billion in AI by 2030, which will go a long way in building an AI ecosystem in our country.”
The initiative in itself, while ambitious, is largely unrealistic owing to gaps in critical infrastructure, such as a lack of clear policy and vision, limited GPU access, obsolete digital infrastructure, fragmented data bases, outdated education, lack of domestic and foreign investment, very low connectivity, aging power grid etc, and a general lack of skilled workers.
Announcing the initiative, the Pakistan premier claimed that under its auspices, over 1,000 fully funded PhD scholarships in artificial intelligence would be awarded to students from across the country by 2030 to develop world-class research capacity and fully equipped national research centres, in addition to launching a national programme for training a million non-IT professionals in AI skills, enabling them to improve productivity and livelihoods.
Highlighting sectoral priorities, the premier said the main focus of AI deployment would be agriculture, mines and minerals, and youth empowerment.
He further addressed concerns among IT workers and urged them to not fear the rapid changes brought by artificial intelligence, assuring that government programmes would help transform IT technicians into AI experts.
He said these advances would significantly improve agricultural yield, quality and efficiency, and would extend to industry, commerce, trade, innovation by women and other economic sectors. . . .