OpenAI unveiled plans Thursday to build a massive computing complex in the United Arab Emirates, following a deal between the Trump administration and the Persian Gulf nation.
The company's new facility is part of a joint venture with software giant Oracle, chipmaker Nvidia, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, networking provider Cisco and G42, an Emirati artificial intelligence firm. The first of several data centers planned for the complex is expected to be up and running next year.
G42 is also expected to contribute money to the construction of OpenAI data centers in the United States. For every dollar that the firm and its partners invest in the Emirates, they will invest an equivalent amount in the U.S. data centers, OpenAI said.
Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, has spent more than a year evangelizing for the global construction of huge data centers to help his company build powerful AI systems. The Emirati announcement is an indication that his wildly ambitious plan, called Stargate, may be starting to gain traction.
The complex arrangement overlaps with a separate agreement reached last week between the United States and the United Arab Emirates to build an AI campus in Abu Dhabi powered by 5 gigawatts of electrical power that would be the largest project of its kind outside the United States.
The Middle East data center plans have divided Washington. The Trump administration officials who drove the deal, including David Sacks, the White House's AI czar, have championed it as a way persuade the Gulf states to use and promote American technology rather than turning to China. But others in the administration and across Capitol Hill have expressed concern that the deal poses a threat to national security and risks turning the Middle East into an AI rival of the United States.
The Commerce Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OpenAI said Thursday that it would build a 1-gigawatt campus in the Emirates, with 200 megawatts expected to go live next year. A 1-gigawatt data center would cost $20 billion, according to figures OpenAI shared with the Biden administration last year. Other companies -- it is unclear which -- will build facilities totaling 4 gigawatts under the plan approved by the Trump administration for the Emirates.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/technology/openai-uae-data-centers.html
The company's new facility is part of a joint venture with software giant Oracle, chipmaker Nvidia, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, networking provider Cisco and G42, an Emirati artificial intelligence firm. The first of several data centers planned for the complex is expected to be up and running next year.
G42 is also expected to contribute money to the construction of OpenAI data centers in the United States. For every dollar that the firm and its partners invest in the Emirates, they will invest an equivalent amount in the U.S. data centers, OpenAI said.
Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, has spent more than a year evangelizing for the global construction of huge data centers to help his company build powerful AI systems. The Emirati announcement is an indication that his wildly ambitious plan, called Stargate, may be starting to gain traction.
The complex arrangement overlaps with a separate agreement reached last week between the United States and the United Arab Emirates to build an AI campus in Abu Dhabi powered by 5 gigawatts of electrical power that would be the largest project of its kind outside the United States.
The Middle East data center plans have divided Washington. The Trump administration officials who drove the deal, including David Sacks, the White House's AI czar, have championed it as a way persuade the Gulf states to use and promote American technology rather than turning to China. But others in the administration and across Capitol Hill have expressed concern that the deal poses a threat to national security and risks turning the Middle East into an AI rival of the United States.
The Commerce Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OpenAI said Thursday that it would build a 1-gigawatt campus in the Emirates, with 200 megawatts expected to go live next year. A 1-gigawatt data center would cost $20 billion, according to figures OpenAI shared with the Biden administration last year. Other companies -- it is unclear which -- will build facilities totaling 4 gigawatts under the plan approved by the Trump administration for the Emirates.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/technology/openai-uae-data-centers.html
