OpenAI to be Major Tenant of UA-UAE AI Campus

OpenAI is expected to be a major tenant of the 5 GW UAE-US AI campus in Abu Dhabi, though its participation has not been finalised, which was unveiled at Qasr Al Watan in the presence of the UAE President H H Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the US President Donald Trump, last week.

According to a Bloomberg report, which cited sources familiar with the matter, said that the project would fall under OpenAI’s Stargate initiative — a $500 billion global AI infrastructure venture with SoftBank and US-based IT firm Oracle, unveiled earlier this year.

Other media reports also said that OpenAI has been eyeing data center expansion in the UAE as part of its broader Middle East strategy. Its key backer Microsoft is already building a hyperscale data center in the country via state-owned firm du.

If confirmed, this would be OpenAI’s largest overseas deployment. Its first US-based Stargate campus is planned at 1.2 GW — less than a quarter of the UAE site’s capacity.

Besides OpenAI, Abu Dhabi-based AI investor MGX, an OpenAI backer and Stargate partner, is also considering a role in the project. Oracle is also reportedly involved in the development’s first phase, the reports said.

 Oracle also announced in January it would quintuple its investments in Abu Dhabi, as the demand for AI and cloud services has surged in the Emirate. It currently operates two cloud regions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and supports du’s sovereign cloud offering for UAE government clients, particularly in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

As part of the broader US-UAE agreement, a joint US-UAE working group will be set up within 30 days to oversee implementation of the partnership, monitor progress, and coordinate the responsible deployment of AI both regionally and globally.

Largest Outside US

The new AI campus, the largest outside of the US, will be home to US hyper-scalers and large enterprises that can leverage the capacity for regional compute with the ability to serve the Global South.

The campus will be developed by state AI firm G42, will span 10 miles, and will include a science park for AI R&D. It is expected to host US AI firms and could receive part of the 500,000 Nvidia chips the US is allocating to the UAE annually under a parallel export agreement.

The agreement includes “strong security guarantees” aimed at addressing US concerns over G42’s historic ties to China. The cluster is designed to meet regional computation demand while complying with US security standards, the reports said.

The UAE-US AI campus will be able to offer latency-friendly services to nearly half of the global population living within 3,200 km of the UAE. Once completed, the facility will leverage nuclear, solar, and gas power to minimize carbon emissions and will also house a science park driving advancements in AI innovation.

The UAE is committed to safeguarding advanced AI technologies by implementing stringent measures to prevent diversion and ensure controlled access to technology. The UAE and US will work together to enhance Know-Your-Customer protocols to regulate access to the compute resources, which are reserved for US hyper-scalers and approved cloud service providers.