According to a new Bloomberg report, OpenAI will be a key partner in developing a massive 5-gigawatt data center complex in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The scale of the project is so vast that the facility will span approximately 26 square kilometers—making it larger than the Principality of Monaco.
This infrastructure project is part of the global “Stargate” initiative, through which OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle plan to build large-scale data centers across the world. These centers will be equipped with high-performance chips to support advanced artificial intelligence development. The Abu Dhabi campus will significantly surpass OpenAI’s first Stargate campus under construction in Abilene, Texas, which is expected to reach 1.2 gigawatts in capacity—making the UAE center more than four times as powerful.
The project is being developed in collaboration with G42, a tech conglomerate based in Abu Dhabi. This partnership continues a relationship that began in 2023, when OpenAI and G42 first teamed up to accelerate AI adoption in the Middle East. During a speech in Abu Dhabi that same year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised the UAE as a country that “was talking about AI before it was cool.”
However, the collaboration has raised concerns among U.S. officials. G42 has previously maintained relationships with blacklisted Chinese entities such as Huawei and the Beijing Genomics Institute. Following pressure from U.S. lawmakers, G42’s CEO told Bloomberg in early 2024 that all investments in China had been divested and the company no longer maintains a physical presence in China.
Despite these concerns, Microsoft—which holds significant interests in the region—announced a $1.5 billion investment in G42 in 2024, with company president Brad Smith joining G42’s board of directors.
This ambitious data center project in Abu Dhabi marks a new chapter in the global race for AI infrastructure and further underscores the UAE’s growing aspirations to become a global leader in artificial intelligence.
