United Arab Emirates sovereign AI programme
The United Arab Emirates had one system of more than 4,000 accelerators in operation by Nov 2025.
Stargate UAE, 2024–2029; the record also covers G42, Core42, TII Sovereign AI, Microsoft Cumulative and Abu Dhabi Digital Strategy
Tracked accelerators, as of 24 Nov 2025
Systems
Two hardware records.
| In operation | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure | >4,000 | Blackwell |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported operational, without a count | Core42 | H100 |
Funding
| Stargate UAE: 1 GW cluster within the planned 5 GW campusForeign direct investment | |
|---|---|
| Microsoft investment and expenditure in the UAE, 2023–2029Foreign direct investment | $15.2B |
| Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy, 2025–2027 (AED13B)Government |
2 components are named in the programme’s sources without an amount.
Stargate UAE: 1 GW cluster within the planned 5 GW campus is unverified: OpenAI’s $500B Stargate investment target applies to the United States. G42’s May and October 2025 announcements specify the UAE campus’s planned capacity but give no total construction budget.
Money on record
The government’s budget documents state an announced budget of 13 billion AED, 2025 to 2027.
Chips and rules
- Accelerators
- NVIDIA’s accelerators are in both of its systems.Chip makers’ product pages
- Fabrication
- TSMC fabricates the Hopper and Blackwell parts that two of its systems name.Chip makers’ product pages
- US export rules
- The United Arab Emirates is in Country Group A:5, outside the groups where exporting advanced AI chips needs a licence from the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 29 Oct 2026
- Scrutica’s rating
- Scrutica rates the programme’s dependence on NVIDIA hardware and on US technology high, on a scale of none, low, medium and high.A qualitative assessment of the programme’s chips, partners and supplier relationships, as none, low, medium or high
Partners
10
6 partners by procurement stage, besides the operators in Systems, and 4 more named in the programme’s sources.
- Announced, 6
- G42, Khazna Data Centers, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Cisco, SoftBank Group
Related pages
Sources
14 sources
- G42 announcement of US advanced-chip export approval, November 2025.: https://www.g42.ai/resources/news/g42-receives-us-approval-advanced-ai-chip-exports-enabling-full-scale-deployment-trusted-ai-infrastructure
- G42’s October 2025 update on Khazna’s construction of Stargate UAE.: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/g42-provides-update-on-construction-of-stargate-uae-ai-infrastructure-cluster-302586430.html
- Microsoft’s 2023–2029 UAE investment and expenditure plan, with past and planned spending itemised.: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/11/03/microsofts-15-2-billion-usd-investment-in-the-uae/
- Microsoft and G42 announcement of a planned 200 MW Khazna expansion.: https://news.microsoft.com/source/emea/2025/11/microsoft-and-g42-accelerate-uaes-digital-future-with-major-data-centre-expansion/
- Oracle’s November 2025 announcement of an Abu Dhabi supercluster with more than 4,000 Blackwell GPUs.: https://www.oracle.com/middleeast/news/announcement/oracle-accelerates-sovereign-ai-capabilities-with-the-launch-of-the-first-supercloud-cluster-2025-11-24/
- G42 announcement of the 1 GW Stargate UAE cluster, its partners, and the planned first 200 MW.: https://www.g42.ai/resources/news/global-tech-alliance-launches-stargate-uae
- G42 announcement of the planned 5 GW UAE–US AI Campus.: https://www.g42.ai/resources/news/g42-lead-consortium-us-partners-build-5gw-uae-us-ai-campus
- OpenAI attributes the $500B Stargate target to infrastructure in the United States.: https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/
- Abu Dhabi’s AED13B Digital Strategy covers government services and infrastructure during 2025–2027.: https://www.dge.gov.ae/en/news/2025-dge-highlights
- MGX’s reported Fund I close; the fund invests internationally and is excluded from UAE infrastructure totals.: https://www.mgx.ae/news-insights/mgx-pleased-confirm-final-close-mgx-fund-i-49-billion-total-commitments-significantly
- The National’s interview about Aleria’s NVIDIA partnership; a separate venture from Stargate UAE.: https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2026/03/27/what-the-uaes-mega-deal-with-nvidia-means-for-its-ai-sovereignty/
- The National reports a third-quarter 2026 target for Stargate UAE’s first phase.: https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2025/12/05/stargate-uaes-first-phase-to-be-completed-in-third-quarter-of-2026/
- The National reports Khazna’s three-year target for the 1 GW Stargate UAE build-out.: https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2025/10/16/g42-unit-khazna-targets-full-build-out-of-1gw-stargate-uae-project-in-three-years/
- The National’s account of the Stargate UAE consortium.: https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/technology/2025/05/24/stargate-uae-ai-g42/
Data
How the figures were made
Operating compute / delivered hardware. Reported operational or delivered: >4,000 NVIDIA Blackwell (Oracle OCI Supercluster, Abu Dhabi region) (physical hardware). The stage is assigned from reported hardware status, disbursements and commitments.
Stargate UAE is a planned 1 GW cluster within the larger 5 GW UAE–US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi. G42’s October 2025 update described construction of the first 200 MW for delivery in 2026. Separate initiatives include Microsoft’s UAE investment programme, Abu Dhabi’s government digital strategy, and Oracle’s Blackwell supercluster for regional cloud customers.
Caveats on this record, 8
- OpenAI’s $500B Stargate investment target applies to the United States. G42’s May and October 2025 announcements specify the UAE campus’s planned capacity but give no total construction budget.
- Microsoft’s spending plan and the government digital strategy cover different activities and periods. The sources do not establish how much government expenditure may pay for commercial cloud services, so these amounts are not added into a combined total.
- Microsoft’s $15.2B covers investment and expenditure in the UAE from 2023 through 2029, including its $1.5B equity stake in G42, data-centre construction, and operating costs. It combines past spending with future plans.
- Abu Dhabi’s AED13B digital strategy runs from 2025 to 2027 and covers government services, cloud migration, AI applications, and a unified resource-planning system. The full budget cannot be attributed to GPU purchases.
- Oracle announced deployment of an Abu Dhabi supercluster with more than 4,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in November 2025. Its release describes services for government and commercial customers across the region; it gives neither the cluster’s price nor a government-owned GPU count.
- Core42’s H100 inventory in the UAE is not quantified by the cited material. Access to GPUs at a European partner facility would not establish an equivalent quantity installed in the UAE.
- G42’s November 2025 announcement reports US approval for advanced-chip exports under its Regulated Technology Environment. The approval permits deployment; the announcement does not establish that the full Stargate campus is operational.
- MGX Fund I is an investment fund with a global portfolio. Its reported fundraising is excluded from these UAE infrastructure figures.
Identifiers
- Scrutica ID
- sovereign-ae
- Country code
- AE
- Name in the record
- UAE: Stargate UAE / G42 / Core42 / TII Sovereign AI + Microsoft Cumulative + Abu Dhabi Digital Strategy