By Federico Maccioni
DUBAI (Reuters) -The first 200 megawatts of a planned 5-gigawatt artificial intelligence campus in the United Arab Emirates should come online next year, an official from Abu Dhabi-backed cloud and AI firm G42 said on Tuesday.
The UAE, a major oil exporter, has been spending billions of dollars to become a global AI hub, looking to leverage its strong relations with Washington to secure access to technology.
During a Gulf visit by U.S. President Donald Trump in May, the UAE signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build one of the world’s largest data centre hubs in Abu Dhabi with U.S. technology. G42 said at the time that the project would be powered by nuclear and solar power, as well as natural gas.
DISCUSSIONS ONGOING FOR REST OF PROJECT
Technology giants Nvidia, OpenAI, Cisco, and Oracle, along with Japan’s SoftBank, are working with G42 to build the first phase, known as Stargate UAE, set to go online in 2026.
“Building towards the (first) 1 GW, we have 200 MW that should come online next year,” G42 acting group chief global affairs officer Talal Al Kaissi said at the AI and tech GITEX conference in Dubai.
“The rest of the four gigawatts, we’re also in deep discussions with other hyperscalers from the U.S.,” Al Kaissi said.
However, the deal to build the campus has not been finalised amid security concerns due to the UAE’s close ties to China, Reuters has previously reported, citing sources.
Middle Eastern deals will require export licences from the Trump administration, and G42’s past ties to China have drawn scrutiny in Washington due to concerns around Beijing’s access to advanced semiconductors including via third parties.
Al Kaissi said he regularly visited Washington to support good working relations.
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni. Writing by Ahmed Elimam. Editing by Mark Potter)
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