UAE and U.S. Unveil Stargate UAE — the World’s Largest AI Campus Outside America

Abu Dhabi is about to become home to one of the most ambitious artificial intelligence initiatives in the world.

Under a historic bilateral agreement announced Thursday, the UAE and U.S. will jointly launch Stargate UAE — a next-generation AI data campus set to become the largest outside the United States. The project marks a major milestone in both AI development and international tech diplomacy.

A 5-Gigawatt Leap into the Future

Spanning 10 square miles and offering 5 gigawatts of capacity, the UAE–U.S. AI Campus will house the new Stargate UAE cluster, which will be developed by G42 and operated jointly by OpenAI and Oracle. Backed by Cisco, SoftBank Group, and NVIDIA — which will supply its Grace Blackwell GB300 systems — the campus is designed to provide “nation-scale compute” for AI training, inference, and deployment.

"This campus is a testament to the ongoing collaboration between our countries in artificial intelligence," said Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council.

It is an expression of the UAE’s commitment to pioneering innovation and fostering global collaboration… delivering transformative benefits for humanity.

A Presidential Backdrop

The launch was announced in Abu Dhabi in the presence of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. President Donald J. Trump, who pledged to deepen economic and technological ties between the two nations. “I have absolutely no doubt that the relationship will only get bigger and better,” Trump said during the event.

The Stargate UAE campus builds on the new “U.S.-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership” — a framework aimed at fostering responsible and secure AI development across borders.

The First International Stargate

According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the project represents the “first major milestone” of the company’s “OpenAI for Countries” initiative — a global program to bring scalable AI infrastructure to allied nations. “By establishing the world’s first Stargate outside of the U.S. in the UAE, we’re transforming a bold vision into reality,” said Altman.

It’s a step toward ensuring some of this era’s most important breakthroughs… can emerge from more places and benefit the world.

Once complete, Stargate UAE will significantly surpass OpenAI’s own U.S.-based compute capacity. The facility’s first 200-megawatt cluster is expected to go live in 2026.

A Regional AI Powerhouse

Beyond its sheer scale, the Stargate UAE campus is built with a focus on sustainability and inclusion. The facility will run on a mix of nuclear, solar, and natural gas energy sources, while also hosting a science park aimed at talent development and responsible AI research. Once operational, the campus will serve as a compute and infrastructure hub across a 2,000-mile radius — potentially reaching half the world’s population.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, echoed this sentiment: “AI is the most transformative force of our time. With Stargate UAE, we are building the AI infrastructure to power the country’s bold vision — to empower its people, grow its economy, and shape its future.”

ChatGPT for All

As part of the partnership, the UAE will become the first country to offer OpenAI’s ChatGPT nationwide. All residents will receive access to ChatGPT Plus, while the tool will be embedded across government agencies and major sectors like healthcare, education, and energy — a move that further positions the Emirates as a live testbed for next-gen AI deployment.

A Strategic Bet on AI Sovereignty

With Stargate UAE, the Emirates isn’t just adding compute capacity — it’s building geopolitical capital. This campus solidifies the UAE’s strategic ambition to become a global AI leader by leveraging its innovation drive, international alliances, and infrastructure investment to make cutting-edge technologies more accessible to the world.