• Orange is deploying OpenAI’s gpt‑oss‑120b and gpt‑oss‑20b models across its infrastructure, from data centres to edge servers, strengthening data sovereignty and efficiency.
• The collaboration accelerates support for African regional languages, enabling tailored AI for customer care and public‑sector use—progressing digital inclusion.
What happened：Orange adopts sovereign AI infrastructure
Orange has announced a major step forward in its partnership with OpenAI, deploying the new open‑weight reasoning models, gpt‑oss‑120b and gpt‑oss‑20b, across its own infrastructure—from regional cloud data centres in France to edge and on‑premises sites across its 26‑country footprint.
This setup allows Orange to maintain full control over sensitive data and comply with diverse regulatory landscapes in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, embodying a sovereign‑AI approach. The models are being customised and distilled by Orange’s AI teams into lighter sub‑models for specific use cases such as network automation, enterprise services, internal operations, and enterprise “Live Intelligence” offerings. Aligned with Orange’s “Responsible AI” framework, this deployment is billed as “frugal”—delivering performance with reduced energy, data use, and computing power.
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Why it’s important
This move sets a new benchmark for secure, sovereign AI deployment in telecoms. By hosting leading‑edge AI models locally, Orange reduces regulatory and privacy risks, lowers operational costs, and enhances environmental sustainability. The frugal approach signals a shift towards pragmatic, efficient AI innovation that is sensitive to carbon footprints and data sovereignty.
Moreover, the enhanced infrastructure underpins Orange’s continued push for digital inclusion in Africa. Already working with OpenAI and Meta to support languages like Wolof and Pulaar, Orange is now positioned to fine‑tune these models further to serve local linguistic communities across its 18‑country African footprint—and plans to release custom models as open‑source tools for governments and public services.
