Major American technology firms including Nvidia, Cisco, Oracle, and OpenAI are backing a new artificial intelligence data center in the United Arab Emirates, known as “UAE Stargate,” multiple sources confirmed Friday.
The initiative, led by Emirati company G42, marks one of the largest AI infrastructure projects in the region. The massive site in Abu Dhabi will span 10 square miles and feature a power capacity of 5 gigawatts, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, which announced the development.
Sources familiar with the project said Nvidia will provide its latest Blackwell GB300 chips to power the facility, with OpenAI and Oracle contributing on the software and cloud infrastructure side. The data center will work in tandem with a similarly named project in the U.S., launched by President Donald Trump in January following his second inauguration.
Trump was in the UAE this week as part of his first international trip of the new term, with stops in both Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Executives from the participating companies, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Cisco President Jeetu Patel, and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, also traveled to the region.
The UAE project will begin with a 1-gigawatt compute cluster, part of a phased rollout designed to scale AI capabilities quickly, according to the Trump administration.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who appeared at the launch of the U.S. Stargate program, is also involved in the UAE expansion, another source confirmed.
The collaboration underscores the growing partnership between the Gulf states and Silicon Valley leaders as the Middle East accelerates its investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Separately, Huang announced Tuesday in Saudi Arabia that Nvidia will sell 18,000 Blackwell chips to Saudi firm Humain for data centers expected to reach 500 megawatts in capacity. AMD also confirmed it will supply chips to the $10 billion Saudi AI project.
Back in the U.S., OpenAI is evaluating potential Stargate campuses across 16 states, including Texas, New York, and California. Construction has already begun in Abilene, Texas, with completion expected by mid-2026.
Despite repeated requests, Cisco, Nvidia, and OpenAI declined to comment on their participation in the UAE Stargate facility.
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