The UAE's bid to become a global centre of gravity for artificial intelligence infrastructure took another concrete step forward this year, with G42's Khazna Data Centres confirming that construction on the Stargate UAE project is advancing on an accelerated timeline toward a 2026 delivery.
Stargate UAE is the first phase of what will become the largest AI infrastructure campus outside the United States: a 1-gigawatt compute cluster built inside a wider 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi. It is being developed by G42 in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and Japan's SoftBank Group, a coalition that reads like a shortlist of the companies defining the current AI buildout globally.
By the Numbers
Total planned capacity: 1 gigawatt (part of a 5GW UAE-US AI Campus) First phase capacity: 200 megawatts AI processors deployed: Up to 35,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB300 chips Target delivery: Third quarter of 2026 Core partners: G42, OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, SoftBank Group
Where the Project Stands Today
According to G42's Khazna Data Centers, civil, structural and architectural work on the first 200-megawatt phase is well advanced, mechanical and electrical systems are being finalised, and the first critical mechanical components have already arrived on site. More than 5,000 workers are currently deployed on the project, which is being built using a design-to-build approach intended to compress the usual gap between planning and construction.
The facility will run on NVIDIA's Grace Blackwell GB300 systems, currently the most advanced AI server hardware NVIDIA offers, and Cisco is supplying zero-trust security and AI-ready networking for the campus. Oracle and OpenAI will operate the cluster once it comes online, giving UAE government agencies and commercial institutions a route to connect directly to frontier AI models from domestic infrastructure.
Why This Matters for Dubai's Tech Sector
Stargate UAE is being built in Abu Dhabi, but the compute capacity it unlocks will ripple across the UAE's entire startup and enterprise tech ecosystem. Sovereign-scale AI infrastructure lowers the cost and latency barrier for Dubai-based companies building AI products, and it strengthens the country's pitch to global AI firms deciding where to locate regional operations. Founders building AI-dependent products should watch for compute access and partnership programmes as the first 200MW phase nears completion.
The project sits alongside a wider set of AI moves in Dubai specifically. Telecom operator du recently posted 10 percent profit growth in the second quarter of 2026, crediting accelerated capital spending on data centres and next-generation connectivity, and Dubai will host the fifth edition of the Data Innovation Summit MEA in October, where enterprise AI governance and agentic AI are set to headline the agenda.
The Bigger Picture
Stargate UAE was made possible in part by a shift in US policy: Washington rescinded restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to the UAE earlier this year, clearing the way for NVIDIA's most advanced hardware to be deployed on Emirati soil. That regulatory opening, combined with sustained government investment in AI talent, research and startup funding, is central to the UAE's stated ambition to shift from an energy-driven economy toward a technology-driven one.
The remainder of the 1-gigawatt Stargate UAE cluster, and the broader 5-gigawatt campus around it, do not yet have confirmed completion timelines beyond the initial 200-megawatt phase. But with equipment already arriving on site and thousands of workers on the ground, the first concrete proof point of the UAE's AI infrastructure ambitions is now on a visible path to going live.
