Microsoft announced on Monday at the first annual Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit that it will invest $15.2 billion in the United Arab Emirates over the next four years. This investment includes the first shipment of cutting-edge Nvidia GPUs to the UAE.
As part of the deal, the US granted Microsoft a license to export NVIDIA chips to the UAE, a move that positions the country as both a testing ground for US export control diplomacy and a regional hub for US AI influence.
The deal allows Microsoft to expand its footprint in the Middle East, a key region in the global battle for AI supremacy. In May, President Donald Trump signed an agreement with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to build an AI data center campus in Abu Dhabi. The project was delayed by U.S. export restrictions that restricted the sale of powerful Nvidia chips needed to run advanced AI systems.
In September, Microsoft became the first company to receive a license from the US Department of Commerce to ship chips to the UAE. The move comes as critics say the deal undermines the logic of U.S. export controls to China by introducing the possibility of back channels through China’s allies.
Microsoft said in a statement that after extensive efforts to meet the strong cybersecurity and national security conditions required by the license, the company was able to accumulate the equivalent of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs in the UAE, based on a combination of A100, H100 and H200 chips.
Microsoft said it uses the chip to provide access to AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open source providers, and its own.
The $15.2 billion figure includes money that Microsoft began spending in the UAE from 2023 as part of its new AI initiative in the country. From 2023 to the end of 2025, Microsoft will spend just over $7.3 billion in the UAE, including a $1.5 billion equity investment in G42, the UAE’s sovereign AI company, and more than $4.6 billion in capital for data centers.
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As part of the new agreement, Microsoft has committed to spending an additional $7.9 billion in the UAE from early 2026 to the end of 2029, including $5.5 billion in capital expenditures for continued and planned expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure. Microsoft has hinted at new measures it will roll out in Abu Dhabi this week.
Microsoft’s work in the UAE goes beyond building data centers. The company says it combines extensive AI infrastructure with significant investments in local talent, training and governance. The company is committed to training one million residents by 2027 and using Abu Dhabi as a regional hub for AI research and model development.
The investment comes on the same day Microsoft signed a $9.7 billion deal with Australia’s IREN for AI cloud capacity.
