Microsoft’s $15.2b Uae Investment Turns Gulf State Into Test Case For Us Ai Diplomacy

Microsoft will put $15.2 cardinal successful nan United Arab Emirates complete nan adjacent 4 years, nan institution announced Monday astatine nan first yearly Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit. The finance will see nan first-ever shipments of nan astir precocious Nvidia GPUs to nan UAE.

As portion of nan deal, nan U.S. has granted Microsoft a licence to export Nvidia chips to nan UAE, a move that positions nan state arsenic some a proving crushed for U.S. export-control diplomacy and a location anchor of American AI influence.

The woody allows Microsoft to grow its foothold into nan Middle East, a cardinal region successful nan world conflict for AI dominance. In May, President Donald Trump struck a woody pinch UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to build an AI information halfway field successful Abu Dhabi. The task was delayed owed to U.S. export controls, which restricted nan waste of powerful Nvidia chips needed to tally precocious AI systems.

Microsoft became nan first institution to person a licence from nan U.S. Commerce Department to vessel nan chips to nan UAE successful September. The move comes arsenic critics opportunity nan woody undermines nan logic of nan U.S.’s export restrictions to China by introducing imaginable back-channels done a Chinese ally. 

In a statement, Microsoft said it performed important activity to meet nan beardown cybersecurity and nationalist information conditions required by nan licenses, which has enabled nan patient to accumulate nan balanced of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs successful nan UAE, based connected a operation of A100, H100, and H200 chips.  

Microsoft said it is utilizing nan chips to supply entree to AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers, and itself. 

The $15.2 cardinal fig includes money Microsoft began spending successful nan UAE starting successful 2023 arsenic portion of a caller AI inaugural successful nan country. Between 2023 and nan extremity of 2025, Microsoft will person spent conscionable complete $7.3 cardinal successful nan UAE, including a $1.5 cardinal equity finance successful G42, nan UAE’s sovereign AI company, and much than $4.6 cardinal successful superior towards information centers. 

As portion of nan caller deal, Microsoft pledges to walk $7.9 cardinal much successful nan UAE from nan commencement of 2026 to nan extremity of 2029, including $5.5 cardinal successful superior expenses for ongoing and planned description of AI and unreality infrastructure. Microsoft hinted astatine caller steps it will stock publically successful Abu Dhabi this week.

Microsoft’s activity successful nan UAE goes beyond building information centers. The institution says it is pairing monolithic AI infrastructure pinch heavy finance successful section talent, training, and governance. The patient is pledging to train a cardinal residents by 2027 and usage Abu Dhabi arsenic a location hub for AI investigation and exemplary development.  

The finance comes nan aforesaid time that Microsoft signed a $9.7 cardinal woody pinch Australia’s IREN for AI unreality capacity.