In a major stride for global tech diplomacy, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have entered a landmark agreement to establish the largest artificial intelligence facility outside America. The high-capacity AI campus will be set up in Abu Dhabi by state-supported company G42, stretching over 10 square miles and backed by a 5-gigawatt energy capacity. Experts suggest it could support up to 2.5 million Nvidia B200 chips.
The deal, signed during President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the UAE, marks a significant change in U.S. policy, following earlier restrictions on AI chip sales due to the UAE’s ties with China. The Trump administration now sees American-managed data centres as reliable guardians of sensitive tech.
Under the pact, U.S. companies will run the data infrastructure and provide cloud and security services across the Gulf. Qualcomm is planning an AI engineering centre, and Amazon Web Services will assist in digital security and cloud migration with local partners.
The agreement also allows the UAE to construct parallel data centres in the U.S. and requires alignment of national security norms to prevent misuse of American technologies. Starting 2025, the UAE can import up to 500,000 Nvidia chips annually.
Notably, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was seen in Abu Dhabi speaking with Trump and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. Though Huawei and Alibaba Cloud remain active in the region, the UAE is phasing out Chinese tech to reassure Washington.
This partnership signals a new era in AI infrastructure and geopolitics.
Read Also: