Access to chips is not the only bottleneck in the UAE’s AI ambitions, according to executives involved in Abu Dhabi’s multibillion-dollar push into advanced technology.
While GPUs have been a focus for Gulf states, other factors are also delaying progress, Paul Bloch, co-founder of data storage provider DDN, told Semafor. “Access to the right data centers, enough power, the right knowledge and expertise to actually deploy, and then GPUs. It’s all of it at once,” he said. Separately, an executive from Abu Dhabi AI conglomerate G42 said the Iran conflict is deterring skilled workers from coming to the UAE.
California-based DDN sells to G42 and partners with Aleria — a unit of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s International Holding Company — and Nvidia to deploy AI in the UAE. That work is visible practically everywhere: Irrigation lines are outfitted with AI sensors to keep the grass in public areas unexpectedly green, according to Bloch.
Such deployments are set to become more expensive, though. Global competition for resources is pushing costs in the “opposite direction” to what analysts predicted at the onset of the latest tech boom, when many expected wider uptake to bring prices down. For large data center builds, Bloch said “what used to cost $100 million five months ago probably costs $200 to $250 million today.”