ISLAMABAD, Feb 10 (APP):The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) and the DFINITY Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here at a local hotel on Tuesday, to advance sovereign AI-native digital infrastructure in Pakistan, ensuring sensitive data remains in-country while enabling secure, modern software systems built for the AI era.
As part of the partnership, DFINITY will support the creation of a dedicated Pakistan Subnet on its Internet Computer Platform (ICP), a sovereign cloud designed to host tamper-resistant software, national-scale applications, and AI-powered systems that can create and operate independently of foreign cloud infrastructure.
The collaboration also includes plans for a National Messenger application enabling private, verifiable communications; expanded access to Caffeine, an AI platform incubated by DFINITY; 1500 licenses of Caffeine to create applications and capacity-building initiatives across government, education, and entrepreneurship. DFINITY will also establish a local presence in Pakistan, reinforcing long-term collaboration and technical engagement in the country.
“This partnership marks an important step in Pakistan’s digital evolution,” said Dr. Sohail Munir, Chairperson of the Pakistan Digital Authority.
“By investing in sovereign cloud infrastructure and modern AI-ready platforms, we are strengthening national resilience, supporting innovation, and creating new opportunities for our public institutions, students, and entrepreneurs.”
Chief Scientist and Founder of DFINITY and Caffeine, Dominic Williams, added, “Pakistan is taking a forward-looking approach to digital infrastructure. By establishing a Pakistan Subnet and investing in sovereign, tamper-proof systems, the country is laying the groundwork for software and AI applications that are secure, verifiable, and built to serve national priorities. This partnership enables Pakistan to build, own, and operate AI and cloud services on its own terms.”
Caffeine empowers people to build and deploy production-ready apps and services to the Internet Computer by describing what they want in natural language, removing traditional barriers such as the need for engineering teams and complex development pipelines. Caffeine is used by solo builders, municipalities, banks, and public institutions worldwide. Three months after launch, users have executed more than 3.4 million build prompts.
It may be mentioned that DFINITY created the Internet Computer, an open network providing a serverless sovereign cloud allowing governments, institutions and individuals to run tamper-proof and resilient software with full ownership and free from foreign provider and intelligence agency access.
Investing over $500 million in research and development, DFINITY’s team composed of engineers and researchers formerly from Google, Apple, IBM, and Meta, have published more than 1,500 papers, earned 88,000+ citations, and contributed 190+ patents across distributed systems, cryptography, and advanced computing.
The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) is the national government body mandated to architect, govern, and drive Pakistan’s digital transformation through a unified, whole-of-government approach. Established under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025, PDA serves as the country’s central authority for digital policy, data and AI governance, national digital infrastructure, and shared government platforms—ensuring interoperability, security, and alignment across federal, provincial, and sectoral entities. As the engine behind Pakistan’s digital future, PDA sets the standards, builds the Digital Infrastructure, and coordinates the national ecosystem so that every ministry, province, and institution moves together toward a modern, efficient, and technology-driven Pakistan National Digital Masterplan.
DFINITY is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to researching and developing the Internet Computer, a network that transforms the Internet into a public sovereign cloud capable of hosting the next generation of software and services. Since 2016, DFINITY has grown into a leading tech R&D organization, employing renowned computer scientists and researchers in Zurich and San Francisco.