Officials in the United Arab Emirates are moving away from a centralized data hub in Abu Dhabi to create a series of smaller sites across the country. Six people familiar with the matter told Reuters this change affects a 5 GW AI project that was previously planned as a single 10 square mile campus. The redesign follows Iranian missile and drone attacks in March that damaged two AWS data centers, prompting the UAE to consider air defense systems, electronic jamming, and underground facilities.
The project is led by G42, controlled by national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan, and involves partners Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, and Cisco. A $30 billion, 1 GW Stargate UAE cluster serves as the first phase, with 200 MW of capacity scheduled to come online this year. G42 says the project remains on track, though the design is undergoing continuous security and resilience reviews.
Key sources
- SOURCE@reuters“UAE revises AI data center plan after Iranian attacks, sources say”x.com
- SUPPORT@wallstengine“The original plan for a single 10-square-mile Abu Dhabi campus will now likely shift toward a network of data centers spread across the UAE”x.com
- SUPPORT@clashreport“Iran’s IRGC later identified G42’s planned campus among potential targets”x.com
- SUPPORT@osint613“UAE-US AI Campus is central to the country's push to become a global AI powerhouse and is led by G42”x.com
- SUPPORT@iranintl_en“some facilities potentially built underground and additional air defenses under consideration”x.com