Microsoft announced a $15.2 billion investment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the next four years, marking a pivotal step in both the company’s AI infrastructure strategy and the United States’ broader AI diplomacy efforts. The announcement came Monday during the first Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit, alongside confirmation that the UAE will receive its first-ever shipments of advanced Nvidia GPUs.
Under the agreement, Microsoft has been granted a U.S. export license to ship Nvidia chips to the UAE, making it the first company authorized to do so by the U.S. Commerce Department. The license establishes the UAE as a test case for American export control policy and a regional center for U.S. AI influence, following months of negotiations over national security safeguards.
The move follows delays in a previous AI data center project launched under a May agreement between President Donald Trump and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which had stalled due to U.S. export restrictions on high-end Nvidia chips. Critics have argued that licensing exceptions could weaken Washington’s export limits to China by enabling indirect access through regional partners.
In a statement, Microsoft said it undertook extensive cybersecurity and compliance work to satisfy national security requirements, enabling it to accumulate the equivalent of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs in the UAE through a mix of A100, H100, and H200 models. The company said these chips are being used to provide access to AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open source developers, and Microsoft itself.
The $15.2 billion commitment includes spending already underway since 2023, when Microsoft began funding its UAE AI initiatives. Between 2023 and 2025, the company will have spent $7.3 billion, including a $1.5 billion equity stake in G42, the UAE’s sovereign AI company, and over $4.6 billion in data center infrastructure. The new deal adds $7.9 billion more through 2029, with $5.5 billion dedicated to capital expenses for continued AI and cloud expansion.
Beyond infrastructure, Microsoft says its efforts in the UAE will focus on local talent and AI governance. The company plans to train one million residents by 2027 and position Abu Dhabi as a regional hub for AI research and model development.
The investment was announced the same day Microsoft revealed a $9.7 billion deal with Australia’s IREN to expand its global AI cloud capacity using Nvidia GB300 GPUs, underscoring its rapid scaling of compute power across multiple continents.
Featured image credits: Freepik
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