Microsoft has announced a $15.2 billion USD investment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 2029, focusing on advancing AI technology, talent development, and fostering trust between the two nations. This initiative, started in 2023, is in partnership with G42, a UAE sovereign AI company.
Investment Breakdown
The $15.2 billion investment includes:
- 2023-2025: Microsoft will have invested and spent just over $7.3 billion, including a $1.5 billion equity investment in G42, over $4.6 billion in capital expenses for advanced AI and cloud datacenters, and over $1.2 billion in local operating expenses.
- 2026-2029: The company plans to spend more than $7.9 billion, including $5.5 billion in capital expenses for ongoing and planned expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure, and almost $2.4 billion in local operating expenses.
Technology
Microsoft was one of the few companies during the previous administration to secure export licenses from the Commerce Department to ship GPUs to the UAE. Also approved in September under the Trump administration, these were based on updated and stringent technology safeguards. These licenses enable Microsoft to ship advanced GB300 GPUs, equivalent to 60,400 Nvidia A100 chips.
The advanced GPUs, models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers, and Microsoft itself are expected to provide access to advanced AI models and support a wide variety of local and international AI-enabled applications.
Talent
Microsoft's team in the UAE comprises almost 1,000 full-time employees from 40 nationalities and a nearly tripled Emirati partner ecosystem in just two years, now with 1,400 firms employing nearly 45,000 professionals across the country. It also established a Global Engineering Development Center in Abu Dhabi to attract world-class tech talent to the UAE and grow a new focus on domain-specific AI models and applications.
There are plans to skill one million people in the UAE by the end of 2027 and upskill government employees across federal entities in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.
Trust
Microsoft is focused on supporting Responsible AI, as it depends on trust and effective compliance systems. G42, Microsoft, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) founded the Responsible AI Future Foundation (RAIFF) in Abu Dhabi to promote responsible AI standards. It is also building on the first Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit.
Microsoft and G42 created an Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement (IGAA), developed in close consultation with the U.S. and UAE governments, that ensures both companies meet or exceed U.S. standards in areas such as cybersecurity, export controls, and responsible AI.
