U.S. tech giants Nvidia, Cisco, Oracle, and OpenAI are backing the “UAE Stargate” artificial intelligence data center, a massive AI-focused infrastructure project announced this week in Abu Dhabi, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.
The UAE Stargate campus, to be built by Emirati firm G42, will span 10 square miles and deliver 5 gigawatts of computing power, making it one of the largest AI data center projects globally. The initiative is being supported by the U.S. Commerce Department and is intended to work in tandem with the U.S.-based Stargate project, unveiled by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
“This collaboration marks a major step forward in AI infrastructure expansion and global data capability,” a senior official involved in the project said on condition of anonymity.
High-Level Backing and Advanced Hardware
Nvidia, a global leader in AI chip design, will supply the cutting-edge Blackwell GB300 systems to the UAE Stargate campus, according to one source. The GB300 chips, announced earlier this year, represent Nvidia’s most powerful AI hardware to date and are central to next-generation data processing and machine learning workloads.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, along with Cisco and Oracle, are also part of the project’s strategic framework. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison was previously involved in the U.S. Stargate launch and is expected to play a key role in the UAE initiative as well.
Linked to Trump’s AI Push
The UAE Stargate is closely tied to the Stargate AI infrastructure project in the U.S., which was announced shortly after President Trump’s second-term inauguration in January. The initiative aims to position the United States and allied countries as leaders in global AI infrastructure.
President Trump, currently on his first overseas visit of his second term, made stops in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, focusing on deepening tech and economic partnerships. He was joined in the UAE by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Cisco President Jeetu Patel, and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son.
Phased Development and Global Integration
The first phase of the UAE Stargate campus includes a 1-gigawatt compute cluster and will focus on supporting large-scale AI model training and deployment. The center will also collaborate with U.S. states involved in the Stargate program, with construction already underway in Abilene, Texas, expected to be completed by mid-2026.
OpenAI previously confirmed that 16 U.S. states, including California, Texas, Florida, and New York, have expressed interest in hosting Stargate facilities. The parallel development of UAE and U.S. campuses is expected to foster global AI interoperability, while also addressing growing compute demands.
Broader AI Expansion in the Gulf
On Tuesday, during the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang confirmed the sale of 18,000 Blackwell chips to Saudi firm Humain, which plans to build 500 megawatts of AI data center capacity. The project, with an estimated investment of $10 billion, will also receive chips from AMD, signaling robust regional demand for AI infrastructure.
With the UAE and Saudi Arabia positioning themselves as AI innovation hubs, the Stargate projects are set to elevate the Middle East’s role in the global tech ecosystem.
