Blaize, a California-based semiconductor and hardware company, has entered multiple new markets in the past year. It announced a partnership with Saudi digital services operator Technology Control Company to advance AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and launched another partnership with Hong Kong-based Starshine Computing Power Technology (Starshine) to deploy Blaize’s hybrid AI platform across Asia. In India, Blaize and domestic hyperscaler company Yotta will collaborate on a $56m (Rs4.96bn) AI surveillance network made up of 250,000 cameras.
“The countries are quite welcoming for new technology to come in. We often go into these regions with a strong local partner. That is just the way things work and the playbook we have taken,” Blaize CEO Dinakar Munagala tells Investment Monitor.
However, he highlights that while the biggest deals the company is forging may currently be in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific (APAC), “we are quite global in terms of actual pipeline”.
Blaize focuses on AI on the edge, designing and manufacturing chips that enable AI processes outside data centres. Edge computing applications could be adopted in many sectors, including automotive, retail, security and more. Munagala highlights that his company is focused on "practical AI" in the physical world that can drive business outcomes and operational efficiency.
He says Blaize’s two main client sectors are currently smart infrastructure and defence. However, he sees a lot of growth potential in industrial automation.
“If you look at manufacturing growth in the US, for example, it has got to be more so with robotics than just human labour [...] You are seeing videos on the internet of dark factories where there is not a single person – everything is done with AI and robotics. Those kinds of things are the future,” Munagala says. “It won’t happen overnight; the initial phase will be more about collaborative robots; human plus robots.”
Foreign investments in tech
Initially, Blaize’s Starshine collaboration will focus on deploying hybrid AI solutions for smart infrastructure in urban areas in key markets including India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and China.
While global FDI flows fell in 2025, APAC bucked the trend, mainly through strong flows into the digital economy. In 2025, approximately 80% of greenfield projects in digital sectors in the Global South went to ten countries, most of them in Asia. India received the most greenfield investment in digital services in the Global South between 2020 and 2024.
Data centres make up the bulk of these investments, but projects in ICT equipment, such as Blaize’s, come in second. Government initiatives in the region are also focused on the development of digital infrastructure, the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0.
Given the growth of the digital economy and the boom of the AI industry, there has also been increasing interest in the concept of AI sovereignty. As countries continue to integrate AI into sensitive sectors such as government agencies, healthcare and defence, guarantees around data storage and infrastructure continuity have taken on greater importance. Given AI’s global supply chain, however, it can be a loose term to define.
Munagala notes that, for Blaize, it is a central aspect of the company's offering as customers in sensitive fields will have natural concerns regarding data storage.
“We are able to create air-gapped solutions for defence in the specific country, so they feel comfortable that it is not all going back to a third-party cloud,” Munagala says. “If they want to have ownership of their data, and not just ownership, but like the data can’t leave the country, then the technology should be built in such a way that your hardware and software are following those rules.”
