Sri Lanka is seeking Chinese government support to establish a National Sovereign AI Computing Centre, according to reporting by Biometric Update published October 23.
The proposal was discussed in Colombo by Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne and Chinese Ambassador Wei Huaxiang. The two countries are also working toward a memorandum of understanding on AI cooperation. The reported discussions included possible Chinese contributions to research, development and skills training; they do not establish that a computing center has been approved, funded or deployed.
Sri Lanka currently has around five megawatts of data-center capacity, while officials estimate that the country will need between 25 and 50 megawatts of cloud and AI capacity in the short term. Government officials have said private suppliers have not responded adequately to demand, including demand from banks for locally hosted cloud infrastructure.
For identity and security teams, the relevant issue is not simply access to AI hardware. Sri Lanka is developing its Unique Digital Identity project alongside a National Data Exchange and National Payment Platform. The proposed AI center is separate from the India-backed identity project, and no direct connection between the two has been announced. However, both depend on decisions about where sensitive data is hosted, who operates the infrastructure and how access is governed.
Sri Lanka’s earlier draft sovereign-cloud strategy provides some of that governance context. It proposed data classification, local hosting for critical government data, provider certification, security audits and data-residency checks. Less-sensitive workloads could use public or hybrid clouds under defined controls.
The current proposal still faces practical constraints. The government is considering an initial expansion of around 25 megawatts while weighing energy and environmental impacts, and is developing investment incentives for data-center, AI and cloud projects. The sources do not provide a delivery schedule, technical architecture, security-assurance results or confirmed financing for the proposed center.