UAE’s Stargate to cost $30bn, AI minister confirms

During his attendance at the Machines Can Think summit in Abu Dhabi, H.E. Omar Al Olama, UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, said that the overall cost of the UAE’s flagship Stargate data center initiative is set to exceed $30 billion.

Al Olama also stated that the 5-gigawatt project would cover an area larger than Monaco, placing the UAE among global leaders driving the next phase of the AI revolution. He also said that the project is the most significant evidence of the UAE’s capacity to deliver projects that no one has the audacity to dream of.

Previously, the Stargate project was expected to cost around $20bn, making the revised figure roughly 50% higher. Al Olama said the first phase of the development is on track for completion by Q3 of this year.

Located in Abu Dhabi, the Stargate UAE campus will cover 19.2 square kilometers, making it more than 9 times the size of Monaco. The facility is designed to supply the massive computing power needed to train and operate advanced genAI systems.

Al Olama also highlighted the UAE’s expanding capabilities in developing large language models and stressed the rising importance of data sovereignty in the global AI landscape. He said: “We want to ensure that countries have an option that does not look for profit and does not look for specific commercial gains, but focuses on giving all these countries sovereign options.”

He added that Emirati-developed models such as Jais and K2 Think have already generated economic value while enabling other nations to benefit from the UAE’s technological advances.

UAE’s Stargate was announced last year as the biggest data center campus outside of the United States. It is being developed by Khazna Data Centres, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s G42 group, with backing from global technology partners including OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank.