The UAE has poured $148 billion into artificial intelligence at home and abroad since the beginning of 2024.
The figure — revealed by Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for AI, on Wednesday — includes 100 billion dirhams ($27.2 billion) for the Stargate data center project and 180 billion dirhams in overseas investments. The UAE, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, is investing heavily in AI infrastructure and applications, with the Emirates taking a notable lead in data center capacity and in attracting foreign investment. Microsoft said it’s committing more than $15 billion in the UAE from 2023 through 2030, more than its combined investments in Germany and France.
At both the government level and within the state-owned energy company ADNOC, AI is already yielding economic benefits, said Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC’s group CEO. The company’s board of directors now uses a proprietary AI assistant, trained on internal data, to provide real-time advice — part of a broader push to deploy the technology across all aspects of its operations.