Indonesia telco chief warns of digital colonisation, backs China open-source AI

The biggest threat to middle powers in the artificial intelligence era is “digital colonisation” from expensive and proprietary AI stacks, an Indonesian telecoms executive has said, adding that China’s open-source sales pitch offers better protection for local sovereignty.

The emphasis on localisation and digital sovereignty comes as major Chinese AI cloud providers look to compete with US rivals in fast-growing Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia.

“The world is moving out of proprietary [models],” said Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO at Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, one of Indonesia’s largest telecoms firms. “Digital colonisation, or digital monopoly, is the biggest threat for any country. I see more openness from companies from China who want to be open-source, who want to respect [local] guard rails, which respect sovereignty.”

Sinha’s remarks were delivered on Tuesday at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026 in Jakarta, where he joined a panel on China-Indonesia AI cooperation alongside executives from Huawei Technologies and Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the SCMP.

The cost competitiveness of Chinese AI services compared to US counterparts is crucial for a developing country like Indonesia, according to a telco executive. Photo: Shutterstock

While leading closed-source AI companies such as OpenAI also offer sovereign AI solutions to countries around the world, Chinese companies have pitched their open models as better suited for customising models to local conditions.

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