The Size of the Socket

Dear Abbot,

Monk here.

Sunday. Six wingspans this week, and the wind still being measured.

ASTANA. In Astana, on his first visit, Jensen Huang of NVIDIA received the Order of Dostyk, First Class, from President Tokayev, and advised the country to “transform energy into intelligence and export intelligence.” Kazakhtelecom has 400 H200 and 480 B300 chips running, says NVIDIA. A company called Firebird reportedly holds an export licence for 45,000 more, with a launch planned for late 2027.

Dostyk means friendship. Astana has 880 of his chips, so most of the friendship is still on order.

JAKARTA. In Jakarta, the government plans to confine new data centres to industrial estates. Indonesia has about 468 megawatts installed and more than 1.5 gigawatts under construction. The industry council warns of “complex system migration” and “operational disruptions,” and firms that keep servers beside their own offices fear being told to move them.

The server room may soon need a commute.

QUEZON CITY. In Quezon City, the information technology department has tendered 496.3 million pesos, about US$7.8 million, for the National ID eVerify Program. The public cloud may take up to 198.7 million. The platform for verifying a person’s identity gets 14.8 million.

Three pesos in every hundred go to the question. The rest goes to storing the answer.

DOHA. In Doha, the Amir has ratified Cabinet Decision No. 34 of 2026, reorganising units of the communications ministry. Among them is a National Center for AI, with three departments, reporting directly to the minister, charged with preparing the national AI strategy.

The machine has not yet been asked a thing. It already has a line manager.

DUBAI. In Dubai, the UAE’s minister for AI, Omar Al Olama, described a federal “agent control tower” that “every agent needs to plug into,” logging each action. The target, set in April, is half of government sectors, services and operations on agentic AI within two years. “The responsible entity is not the AI agent,” he said; it is the institution that deployed it.

“Can I be an agent?” asked the boy.

“You would plug into the tower, and it would write down everything you do.”

“And when I break something?”

“The ministry apologises.”

MUSCAT. In Muscat, Oman launched the second phase of its National Digital Economy Programme on Thursday: RO 300 million of investment, 3,000 direct jobs a year, and AI data centres of up to 500 megawatts. Cost, developers and timetable were not announced.

Oman has measured the socket. The building, the builder and the year will be fitted later.

Chuang Tzu begins his book with Peng, a bird whose back is thousands of li across. It can rise ninety thousand li, but only once the wind beneath it is piled thick enough to hold it. The capitals drew the wingspan first: 45,000 chips, 500 megawatts, half a government run by agents, a centre with its departments already named. The wind came in smaller sizes. Eight hundred and eighty chips. No builder. Fourteen million pesos for the question that matters. Jakarta at least counted its wind before telling it where to blow.

Medal: awarded. Chips: 880. Tower: taking notes.

Yours, waiting on the breeze before I flap,

The Monk