"It has been acknowledged -globally and regionally - that Cyprus is already an established vibrant regional technology hub and President’s 2025 roadshow in US has proven to be a bold step forward in the journey of transforming our economic model by adding tech sector as a new key pillar (in addition to tourism, shipping and financial services) by attracting major technology players in our country," Kyriacos Kokkinos, former Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy and Executive Advisor to the Board of CL8 notes.
Approached by CBN to comment on recent developments, including US artificial intelligence leader NVIDIA's decision to bring a supercomputer to Cyprus and US AI chip innovator Tenstorrent's intention to establish a significant presence in Cyprus, Kokkinos continued, "The journey started five to seven years back through a well-crafted and rigorously executed program, the fruits of which we are already seeing beared today, as the tech sector contributes more than 15% to our GDP."
Among other things, Kokkinos shared his expert advice on what Cyprus should do to continue this positive momentum, ensure growth and encourage overseas companies of a similar calibre to consider a presence on the island. He also underlines the need to actively seek out ways to improve data centers' power usage effectiveness.
President Christodoulides’ 2025 roadshow to the US has begun to bear fruit, most recently with news that NVIDIA will be contributing to Cyprus’ national supercomputing (HPC) and AI infrastructure, bringing a supercomputer to Cyprus. How do you anticipate the presence of such technology being beneficial for Cyprus, ie. What are some of the ways the public and private sectors can ultimately benefit on a practical basis? In simple terms, how will our daily lives potentially improve?
It has been acknowledged -globally and regionally - that Cyprus is already an established vibrant regional technology hub and President’s 2025 roadshow in US has proven to be a bold step forward in the journey of transforming our economic model by adding tech sector as a new key pillar (in addition to tourism, shipping and financial services) by attracting major technology players in our country. The journey started five to seven years back through a well-crafted and rigorously executed program, the fruits of which we are already seeing beared today, as the tech sector contributes more than 15% to our GDP. Laser-focused execution – coordinated by the Government, Invest Cyprus national agency, and private sector, led by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and OEB- for sustainable growth in the sector.
Being an attractive destination for tech companies has economic, social, and political benefits:
Economic: Huge contributor to our GDP, employment of highly skilled workforce, brain-gain, promoting business landscape sophisticatio,n and adoption of world -class management and leadership practices and frameworks
Social: Enriching our cross-cultural baseline, promoting Cyprus' rich cultural heritage, enhancing quality of life and living standards in an AI-enabled society. Being a vibrant hub in the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa is a unique blend of cultures of civilisations, people, and aromas.
Political: Cyprus, being a well-established regional tech hub bridging Europe with the Middle East, North Africa and Israel, can play an important role in promoting political stability in the region and promoting data sovereignty.
What are the challenges and issues that Cyprus needs to tackle to ensure sustainable growth of the sector?
Indeed, our current success is not guaranteed; this is conditioned on specific factors and challenges, such as:
Capacity building and addressing the talent gap. Talent shortage is a global challenge, and Cyprus is no exception. This means focusing on the upskilling/reskilling of our tech workforce, revamping our academic curricula as well as professional certification programs to meet the needs of the AI data-driven economy, as well as building a solid bridge for tangible collaboration links between Academia, Private, and Public Sectors.
The existing ecosystem of tech talent between the foreign tech companies – a vibrant and very modern network of professionals with emphasis on modern technologies- in Cyprus and the local native talent pool – a solid pool of well-educated and talented professionals - is not yet well connected, as they still function as two separate talent ecosystems. Their amalgamation, collaboration, cooperation, and bonding will prove mutually beneficial, leveraging the competencies, capacities, and expertise of each other through cross-fertilisation and osmosis of tech skills and practices.
There are certain areas that need to be addressed for enhancing our attractiveness and competitiveness in the sector, such as energy cost, as well as enhancing our start-up visa program. Also, addressing the public sector ‘red tape’ - excessive, slow, and complex administrative procedures within government departments that hinder, rather than facilitate, the operations of businesses and citizens- is vital as we sail forward.
As with data centres, this kind of technology also requires a great deal of power and cooling to operate. Does this mean that data centres also stand to benefit?
In this AI-enabled era, data is the new form of currency and the key ingredient for knowledge creation. Data centres are highly demanding -fuelled by- on energy requirements; successful and sustainable growth of this sector in Cyprus is conditioned by daring and drastic interventions in addressing the high energy cost; this is a long overdue issue that we need to acknowledge that we did not manage to address so far and any prolonged delay can be proved existential on the sustainability of our current success in the sector.
Cyprus already has a solid base of reliable and highly efficient data centre solutions that can help solidifying the country’s regional data hub role; this can only be achieved through the support of the government in addressing the energy-related challenges, as well as the enhancement of data cable connectivity and promotion of the country in the region as a safe ‘data shelter’ hub.
Given that AI workloads are highly demanding on power usage, Cyprus businesses (Public or Private sector) that want to take advantage of this market opportunity would need to actively seek out ways to improve their power usage effectiveness, which in itself may bring about efficiency innovations that can well be of value to the wider economy.
US AI chip innovator Tenstorrent is also set to establish a significant presence in Cyprus, anticipated to open an office here in 2026. In what ways do you believe this new presence will contribute to the country’s efforts to become a regional tech hub?
The presence of Tenstorrent -and other leading companies in the AI era- in Cyprus is a vote of trust and endorsement of our country’s role as a leading regional tech player. These companies are not just leading the AI revolution ... they are creating and shaping it- and their presence is amplifying our AI and deep-tech capacities and capabilities. It is important to welcome, facilitate, and support their presence as these will be our best ambassadors and seal of approval for attracting more similar investors. Cyprus is increasingly gaining momentum as a prime International business centre in the EU. We need to protect and enhance this momentum.
Tenstorrent's presence in particular is of huge value to the Cyprus 'AI R&D' ecosystem as they will bring/share their US-originated best practices and experience in our market and region.
What more can be done to encourage overseas companies of a similar calibre to consider a presence on the island and/or cooperation with local companies?
Simple.... just deliver on the promise -and solidify the trust we are already enjoying- by exceeding the investor’s expectations. These are our best ambassadors and echo to any prospective newcomer.
Continuously monitor our competitiveness and attractiveness metrics with speed-light reflexes, adjusting and recalibrating our programs so that they remain unique.
Enhance our brand reputation and trust in our country as an international business centre by focusing on addressing a well-established and articulated set of values, ethos, trust, and integrity.
Finally, we have to successfully address the challenges of talent gap, energy cost and simplify public sector processes and systems through business-friendly digitalisation.
