Despite the global boom in artificial intelligence (AI), Pakistan remains largely absent from large-scale AI development due to structural and capital constraints, said Ovais Tariq, co-founder and CEO of US-based Tigris Data. His company raised a $25 million Series A round in October last year, that was led by Spark Capital and saw participation from existing investors, which include Andreessen Horowitz.
In an exclusive interview with media, he urged long-term investment in energy and infrastructure to allow the South Asian nation a meaningful participation in the AI economy.
Tariq, a Silicon Valley tech veteran who spent nearly six years at Uber, helping the global riding app build its in-house storage platform before leaving to develop Tigris Data with two other colleagues from Uber, shared his insights on the fascinating world of AI.
While noting that most cutting-edge AI development remains concentrated in the United States and China, he said Pakistan faces significant hurdles, including the high cost of GPUs [graphics processing unit] and the massive power requirements needed to support AI computing at scale.
“I think that Pakistan should invest there.”
Tariq believes any serious push into AI, being extremely energy intensive, would require sustained investment in clean and reliable energy sources, “whether looking at nuclear reactors or solar”.
The Karachi-born executive believes that investment in AI infrastructure would not be in vain.
“It’s going to help in upskilling the job, workforce and help improve education. There are so many positive benefits that can come out of here.”
However, he cautioned that AI infrastructure remains capital-heavy globally, with leading AI companies, i.e. OpenAI, spending billions of dollars annually on compute, storage, and networking.
“AI, as it stands today, is costly. It is becoming cost-efficient, but it has to become more cost-efficient. Right now, it’s in a place that requires quite a lot of capital investment.”
There has been a massive surge in AI in a relatively short time span, with major tech giants announcing massive investments. Elon Musk’s xAI announced a $20 billion data centre build in Mississippi, European AI startup Mistral securing a strategic deal with France’s military, and Amazon pledging up to $50 billion in AI and supercomputing investments. All these developments underscore the massive scale of AI rising.
Founded in 2021, Tigris Data focuses on data infrastructure for AI and machine learning workloads.
“A majority of our customers are AI companies here.”
The company, located in Silicon Valley, is currently in an expansion phase.
“We have been building data centres. We have been renting our space in power where we can install our hardware. So we need to expand that, and that, of course, requires substantial capital. That’s where it’s going to go.
“Then you also want to expand in Europe and Asia. That’s where we’ll spend,” he said.
On the global front, Tariq said the AI revolution is driving a shift toward distributed computing, creating new opportunities but also operational challenges.
For his company, though, the key challenge is not regulation but the speed at which infrastructure can be deployed, especially data centres and hardware, as demand for AI systems grows globally.
Offering advice to aspiring startups, particularly in Pakistan, Tariq stressed the importance of building products that solve real problems and that customers are willing to pay for.
“A lot of times, I see people build things without really understanding what the customer and market needs are. So do the right market research. Don’t start building things without understanding who is going to be your customer, who is going to give you the money, and who is going to actually buy your product. That’s the core of it.”
He encouraged entrepreneurs to leverage AI tools to accelerate learning, research, and product development.
“It’s so easy to build as well because of all of the AI assistance that the software provides these days. Use it to your advantage.”
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