UAE and US to Establish World’s Largest AI Campus Outside the US

The United Arab Emirates and the United States have unveiled plans to build a groundbreaking AI campus in Abu Dhabi, which will span an area of 10 square miles. According to a statement from the White House, the facility will become the largest artificial intelligence center outside the United States and a key hub for advanced AI data center infrastructure in the Middle East.

The announcement coincided with a high-level meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Qasr Al Watan, the UAE’s presidential palace. This initiative is part of a broader package of agreements valued at $200 billion, signed during the final stop of President Trump’s tour across the Gulf, as detailed in a White House briefing.

Additionally, the UAE visit played a crucial role in advancing a previously agreed $1.4 trillion investment framework, which was first introduced during a senior-level Emirati delegation’s visit to Washington in March.

The upcoming AI campus in Abu Dhabi will offer 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, powering local data centers that will support American hyperscalers—major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. This infrastructure is designed to deliver high-speed services to nearly half of the world’s population, located within a 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) radius of the UAE.

Leading the development is G42, a prominent Emirati artificial intelligence firm, which will collaborate with several U.S. technology companies to construct the site. The initial phase will launch with 1GW of capacity, and the energy supply will be sourced from a combination of nuclear, solar, and natural gas.

The initiative highlights the deepening US-UAE collaboration in artificial intelligence, reflecting the UAE’s strategic goal of becoming a regional leader in advanced technology and sustainable innovation in the Middle East. As emphasized by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council, this move reinforces the nation’s ambition to be at the forefront of tech-driven development, particularly in AI data center capabilities.

US Commerce Secretary Howard W. Lutnick hailed the project as the beginning of a “historic partnership” in the Middle East centered around artificial intelligence. He noted that American firms will manage and operate the data centers, ensuring that US-led cloud services are available throughout the region.
The foundation of this initiative lies in the newly announced US-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership, a government-to-government agreement designed to promote secure collaboration. Lutnick underlined that the framework includes security safeguards aimed at preventing any unauthorized transfer or misuse of American artificial intelligence technology.