Serving Half the World’s Population

Earlier this year, we wrote about how the Middle East is ramping up its AI investments. Specifically, we highlighted how the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) commitment to becoming a rising global player in the field of AI. That commitment was in full force on May 15, 2025 as the UAE and the U.S. announced plans for a 10-square-mile AI campus in Abu Dhabi—the largest of its kind outside the U.S.— which will include a massive 1GW AI/HPC data center just in the first implementation phase.

The UAE and U.S. deal’s main components
The AI campus is meant to serve the Global South, which is half of the world’s population, with ultra low-latency computing power. The campus will be built by G42, an Abu-Dhabi state-backed company, but operated by U.S. companies using cloud services provided by U.S. managed companies. Two such companies mentioned in the news articles are Amazon Web Services and Qualcomm who would work with local partners on cybersecurity and to foster cloud adoption. Additionally, the new campus is expected to run on NVIDIA’s ‘Vera Rubin’ or ‘Vera Feynman’ architectures by 2028. The NVIDIA Rubin architecture is 2.5 times faster than Blackwell and promises significant enhancements.

The campus is expected to progress in phases. The news announcement marks the commencement of phase 1, which is the construction of a 1GW AI data center. It is announced as part of a larger 5GW campus plan under a partnership between the US and UAE.

The agreement also includes a commitment from the UAE to “invest in, build, or finance” data centers located in the U.S. that are at least as large and as powerful as those in the UAE.

The Power of AI For All
The impact of the new 10-square-mile AI campus will take years to realize. However, it is not difficult to see how AI/HPC computing at such a large scale will have many positive outcomes. Here are a few that come to mind:

Digital Infrastructure and Local Connectivity: A data center that is closer to local users reduces latency and improves access to digital services such as streaming, cloud computing and AI-led innovations. It also helps businesses in the digital south use the infrastructure, instead of relying solely on data centers in Europe or North America. Applications that require edge computing are now viable, especially in underserved areas. In the case of this new announcement, it has the potential to improve services for billions of users across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

Economic Development: Particularly for the tech ecosystem in the region, this data center campus could encourage growth of adjacent industries such as telecommunications, cloud services, and software development.

Geopolitical: Data sovereignty concerns may be alleviated if countries can host and control their data domestically. Countries in the Global South can better leverage AI for public health, agriculture, and defense.

As a company based in Dubai, UAE, we are excited to have a front row seat for this and other data centers being built in the Middle East, and are proud to be involved in and/or supporting such projects at various levels. We’ll continue to provide updates on the project’s progress, challenges, and milestones.

To learn more, the following articles covered the US and UAE announcement:

CIO Magazine
Reuters
Middle East AI News