Microsoft is investing $15.2 billion in the UAE to expand AI and cloud operations

• Microsoft’s $15.2 billion spend in the UAE isn’t without significance
• The country’s citizens are among the top generative AI users worldwide
• The move is also about building international trust

Microsoft has pledged to invest $15.2 billion in the UAE between 2023 and 2029 to expand its AI infrastructure and build talent in the region.

The company’s investment goes one step further in helping building trust in US-UAE tech cooperation and partnerships, with Microsoft having already spent $7.3 billion across equity investments, capital expenditure and other ongoing expenses between 2023 and 2025.

Microsoft now plans to match that with a further $7.9 billion invested between now and 2029, a period which will see $5.5 billion dedicated to the expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure, as well as $2.4 billion devoted to operating costs.

Microsoft plans to continue investing in the UAE

As part of its ongoing investments into the UAE, Microsoft has secured US export licenses for Nvidia GPUs while meeting strict security and compliance conditions.

Around 81,900 GPUs are now set to be deployed, the company noted, to be used for models across OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft’s own services.

Microsoft’s investment in the UAE doesn’t come out of nowhere – the country ranked highest globally for AI usage per capita, according to Microsoft’s recent AI Diffusion Report.

59.4% of the UAE population use GenAI, ahead of Singapore (58.6%), the report found, with no other countries passing the 50% mark.

Speaking about its upskilling efforts, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company is well on its way to meet and exceed its goal to train one million people in the UAE by the end of 2027.

The final pillar of the investment is about strengthening trust. “Given the role of export controls and other trade issues, the flow of advanced GPUs and AI models also requires trust between nations,” Smith noted.

To tackle this, Microsoft is leading the development of the Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement (IGAA) together with the UAE and US governments to ensure that security, export control and technology transfer requirements are met.

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