AI creates opportunity for global economic change, yet requires local AI implementation
Aiolian, Your Partner for Global AI Deployed Locally
Aiolian International is a boutique consulting firm that helps developing nations and their local companies create sovereign AI infrastructure while navigating the evolving US regulations for AI technology exports.
The partners at Aiolian are an international team of data center veterans who have built data center & AI technology companies, created secure, multi-megawatt data centers and successfully engaged with the US government on policy and trade
Major companies served:
April 24th, 2025 – As our clients, prospective clients and partners are well aware, the deadline for compliance with the Biden administration’s Interim Final Ruling (IFR) “Framework for Diffusion of AI” export regulation is only fifteen working days away. It’s expected that the Trump administration will publish their modifications to the IFR by this deadline. In the last Aiolian International update, we outlined four key factors the Trump administration will have to take into considerations with their modifications. In this update, we describe two possible scenarios which we call “Shift Left” and “Wolf in Bear’s clothing”... Read more...
Aiolian International LLC helps developing nations and their local companies create sovereign AI infrastructure while navigating the evolving US regulations for AI technology exports. In the fast moving AI ecosystem, the AI stack is inevitably intertwined with dynamic U.S. AI export regulations. Aiolian addresses this complexity with a seamless combination of experience and capabilities: AI stack strategic planning, U.S. regulatory consulting and compliance solutions. Please contact us for help in any of these areas including any planning required to apply for the National Validated End User (NVEU) authorization required by the U.S. to export GPUs required to scale your Sovereign AI cloud.
Questions from our Clients
What's Involved in Applying for NVEU authorization?
To get approved as a National Validated End-User (NVEU), companies have to go through a thorough application process that will be reviewed by different U.S. government agencies. You'll need to send a request to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) that includes a lot of information, as outlined in Supplement No. 8 to Part 748 of the IFR. Some of the key things they'll want to know about are: 1) Any business connections your company has with government or military groups in places like China, etc. 2) Your plan for managing risks in your supply chain, especially to keep equipment from China, etc out of your data centers. 3) Details about your company's training on export rules and your overall compliance procedures. 4) How you can make sure that any advanced computer equipment you get stays within the specific country you're authorized for. 5) You'll also need to promise that you'll follow the rules in Supplement No. 10 to Part 748, which includes meeting certain security standards for your data centers. 6) It's important to know that the owner of the advanced computer equipment needs to apply. If the company that operates the equipment is different from the owner, then the operator also needs to get their own NVEU approval. Being an NVEU is specific to one country. If you want to operate in other countries, you'll likely need separate NVEU authorizations. 7) Also, there are limits on the total computing power (TPP) you can have in each country. Please contact Aiolian International and we can help you get started on planning for your NVEU application.
Why are the Hyperscalers Not Only Ignoring DeepSeek but Growing their AI Spending?
On January 27th, 2025, as awareness of China’s DeepSeek grew with investors, the stock prices of AI infrastructure companies worldwide plunged as DeepSeek’s LLM (large language model) challenged the prevailing thesis that creating breakthrough AI solutions requires exorbitant investments in AI infrastructure (GPUs, XPUs, Memory chips, data centers, power, real-estate, etc). While the LLM efficiencies claimed by DeepSeek are groundbreaking, this report will explain why it will have little impact on the growing demand for AI infrastructure. In fact, shortly after the DeepSeek news, neither Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Alphabet nor Amazon indicated any softness in their AI capital spending plans. Please contact us for the detailed report.
What is AI Sovereignty?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Sovereignty is a hot topic, and many vendors, operators and nations alike are waving the flag enthusiastically. But what exactly does it mean? And what are implications for national policies and vendor and operator strategies? A set of countries we might describe as “emerging datacenter economies” – in south east Asia, India, south America, the middle east, etc – are hard at work defining answers to these critical questions. In this article, we outline recommendations for these emerging datacenter economies to strive for a mix of multi-national hyperscalers and sovereign-owned AI clouds that will help them optimize the balance between technology leadership and autonomy, and to offset the significant national risks of becoming largely dependent on multi-national corporations (MNC).
How are Multinational AI and Cloud Companies Evolving to Address AI Sovereignty?
While developing nations recognize the need to establish AI Sovereignty, creating an entirely home-grown capability and infrastructure is unrealistic. Nations are pursuing various models, from state-owned AI clouds to public-private partnerships. These local enterprises are adept at building AI data centers (land, power, data center buildings) and equipping them with racks of AI computing hardware (notwithstanding the US export regulations described separately). But the other critical layers of the “tech stack” are substantial (infrastructure management, data management, workload/tenant management, AI development and deployment tools, training, support, etc). Naturally, Global AI and cloud companies have invested and continue to innovate in these capabilities, but their current offerings are not “sovereign AI friendly”. This report describes how GPU vendors (e.g. Nvidia) and global AI / cloud companies are evolving to address this trend with the goal of partnering with local AI enterprises. Please contact us for the detailed report.