Artificial intelligence deals in 2025 revealed the contours of ambitious national strategies that could define the Gulf’s economic diversification in the years ahead. The biggest announcements came during US President Donald Trump’s visit in May, when Saudi Arabia stood up HUMAIN, a PIF-owned AI national champion, which struck chip deals with Nvidia and Qualcomm. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi-backed AI conglomerate G42 is on schedule to open the first phase of its massive Stargate UAE data center campus in 2026.
Qatar this month launched Qai with plans to invest $20 billion in AI infrastructure in a joint venture with Brookfield, having already backed OpenAI rival Anthropic. Similarly, HUMAIN has a partnership with Blackstone, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX — an OpenAI backer — tied up with BlackRock for data center investments.
The year was not without reality checks, though: G42 and Microsoft have struggled to come up with a business case for a stalled data center project in Kenya, Semafor scooped. Across most of the AI sector, profits have proved elusive but Gulf governments are still pouring money in, seeing the technology as a one-two punch to diversify and improve productivity. This year we followed the chips; next year will be about seeing what they do.