Microsoft has announced a $15.2 billion investment in the United Arab Emirates over the next four years, coupled with the first U.S.-granted license allowing the export of advanced Nvidia GPUs to the nation. The announcement was made Monday at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit.
This strategic move positions the UAE as a critical testbed for U.S. export-control diplomacy and a focal point for American AI influence in the region. The investment plan encompasses expenditures from 2023 through the end of 2029, with approximately $7.3 billion allocated for the period spanning 2023 to 2025. This initial phase includes a $1.5 billion equity investment in G42, the UAE's sovereign AI company, and over $4.6 billion directed towards data center infrastructure. An additional $7.9 billion is pledged for 2026-2029, with $5.5 billion earmarked for the expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure.
The U.S. Commerce Department granted Microsoft the license to ship Nvidia chips to the UAE in September. This development follows previous delays to an AI data center campus project in Abu Dhabi, which was stalled due to U.S. export controls restricting the sale of powerful Nvidia chips necessary for advanced AI systems. Microsoft stated it undertook substantial work to satisfy stringent cybersecurity and national security conditions mandated by the licenses. The firm has since accumulated the equivalent of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs in the UAE, utilizing a combination of A100, H100, and H200 chips.
Microsoft indicated these chips will facilitate access to AI models from providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source developers, and its own offerings. Beyond infrastructure development, the company has committed to extensive investments in local talent, training one million residents by 2027, and establishing Abu Dhabi as a regional hub for AI research and model development. The investment in the UAE was announced concurrently with a separate $9.7 billion deal signed between Microsoft and Australia's IREN for AI cloud capacity.
