When Donald Trump touched down in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier this year, he arrived not just with headlines, but with deals, ambition, and AI firepower.
The US president was given a royal welcome, but the real centrepiece of the visit was the announcement of a sprawling new AI campus – a joint UAE-US initiative.
Billed as the largest AI infrastructure hub outside the US, it symbolised the Gulf’s boldest bid yet to plant itself at the heart of the global AI map.
Trump’s visit to the Gulf also coincided with a strategic shift, which saw the White House easing restrictions on exporting the most powerful microchips from US firm Nvidia to both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
This move underscored how much the US now sees its Gulf allies as partners in a wider technological alliance.
The Gulf states are deploying their sovereign wealth, geography, and energy edge (lots of oil) to position themselves as AI hubs. Technology is central to their plans to reduce future dependence on earnings from fossil fuels.
The UAE, in particular, is leading the charge. And data centres lie at the heart of this effort. Abu Dhabi has announced a massive data centre cluster for OpenAI and other US firms as part of the “Stargate” project.
The multibillion dollar deal is being funded by G42, an Emirati state-linked tech firm driving the country’s AI ambitions. Nvidia will supply its most advanced chips.
Tech giants Cisco and Oracle, along with Japan’s SoftBank, are also working with G42 to build the first phase.
“Just like Emirates helped turn the UAE into a global hub for air travel, now the UAE is at a stage where it can become an AI and data hub,” says Hassan Alnaqbi, CEO of Khazna, the UAE’s largest data centre operator.
Khazna, which is majority owned by G42, is building the infrastructure for Stargate. The company currently operates 29 data centres across the UAE.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/
