Microsoft has announced a massive $15.2 billion investment in the United Arab Emirates over the next four years, marking one of its biggest regional commitments to date. The announcement came at the first Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit, signaling the company’s ambition to strengthen its global AI footprint.
As part of the deal, the U.S. government granted Microsoft a special license to export Nvidia GPUs to the UAE, a move that positions the country as a strategic hub for AI innovation and U.S. tech diplomacy. This makes the UAE the first nation to receive advanced Nvidia A100, H100, and H200 chips under such a license.
The investment includes Microsoft’s ongoing AI initiative in the UAE, which began in 2023, featuring a $1.5 billion equity stake in G42, the nation’s sovereign AI company, and $4.6 billion in capital for data centers. The remaining $7.9 billion will be spent from 2026 to 2029 on expanding AI and cloud infrastructure.
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Beyond infrastructure, Microsoft is also pledging to train one million UAE residents by 2027 and establish Abu Dhabi as a regional AI hub for research and model development.
The announcement coincided with Microsoft’s $9.7 billion deal with Australia’s IREN for AI cloud capacity, underscoring the company’s aggressive push to expand its global AI dominance.
