Pakistan unveils ‘Buraq’ Urdu AI model at Seoul summit, commits $1bn for AI by 2030

SEOUL: Federal Minister for IT & Telecom Shaza Fatima Khawaja has announced “Buraq”, Pakistan’s own large language model for Urdu and regional languages. The announcement came at the Global AI and Digital Summit 2026 in Seoul, which ran from October 19 to 22 under the hosting of the World Bank Group and South Korean ministries.

Two pillars of the national AI programme

Buraq is part of the National Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Development Programme (NAIEDP). According to the APP report, the programme rests on two pillars: first, procuring sovereign domestic AI computing capacity so that data is processed inside Pakistan; and second, developing the Buraq large language model.

Urdu is just 0.03% of the web

The government says the decision was forced by a basic deficit — per Common Crawl data, Urdu makes up just 0.03% of global web content, which is why existing AI models struggle with Urdu and regional languages. That is why Buraq is being built “from scratch.”

$1 billion through 2030

The government has committed $1 billion in funding through 2030 for AI, regulatory changes and public-sector AI projects spanning welfare, healthcare and tax systems. At the same summit, Pakistan became the first country to sign the Digital and AI Compact.

Four digital foundations

The government pointed to four established digital foundations: NADRA digital identity (over 100 million Pakistanis), the State Bank’s Raast instant payments system, the WASL national data exchange, and the first local AI cloud via Telenor Pakistan–Data Vault Pakistan.

Early days — but the question remains

Technology observers note the announcement is still early-stage — the model is not publicly available, and delivery is the open question. Even so, it is being seen as the most significant AI announcement in Pakistan’s technology history.