Allied Corporation, Google secure $200m Chromebook deal in Pakistan

Adelaide PC maker Allied Corporation and tech giant Google have struck a $200m deal to manufacture laptops for students in Pakistan.

Allied Corporation senior vice-president sales and marketing Luke Flesher, left, with chief executive and founder Aron Saether-Jackson.

A burgeoning partnership between Adelaide-based PC maker Allied Corporation and tech giant Google has struck a $200m deal to manufacture and supply laptops to students in Pakistan.

As part of an agreement signed off by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Allied and Google will work with the country’s Education Minister to produce more than 500,000 Google Chromebooks for use in Pakistan’s education system and digital enterprises.

Allied will establish a local manufacturing presence in Pakistan to produce the Chromebooks by 2025 in a move aimed at ensuring every student in the country has access to cutting-edge classroom technology.

It follows a deal in January for Allied to make Chromebook laptops for Australian school students – the only agreement of its type made by Google with a manufacturing partner in Australia and New Zealand.

The first of those laptops have been used by South Australian students in three pilot programs with local schools.

Allied will also produce and market its range of high-spec gaming PCs targeting Pakistan’s 38 million gamers, and is working with the Pakistan government on export opportunities to other countries in the region including Turkey, Qatar and the UAE, for both Chromebook and Allied-branded gaming products.

Google Pakistan’s country director, Farhan S. Qureshi, said the partnership had the potential to “transform education in Pakistan for the better” by providing millions of students with access to technology that would equip them for the digital economy.

Mr Saether-Jackson founded Allied in 2017 following stints with PC manufacturers Alienware and Origin PC.

The company manufactures its own line of gaming PCs, as well as a range of gaming accessories, which are sold to customers in Australia, North America, Europe and South East Asia.

It also builds high-spec machines for customers in the defence, space, healthcare and infrastructure industries.

The launch of a manufacturing facility in Pakistan adds to the three facilities from which the company operates in Adelaide’s western suburbs, as well as satellite sites in Dallas, Texas and Ostersund in Sweden, which were opened in 2021 and 2023.

The partnership with Google earlier this year gave Allied access to Google’s IP and design standards to manufacture the Chromebook devices in Adelaide, where it’s predicted up to 500 new jobs could be created.

Allied has the facilities to produce 100,000 Chromebooks a year in Australia, and has plans to expand its local manufacturing capacity.