Microsoft Plans $15.2 Billion UAE Investment Through 2029
More than $7.3 billion was invested or spent through 2025, with another $7.9 billion planned for AI infrastructure, operations and workforce training through 2029.
Microsoft plans to invest $15.2 billion in the United Arab Emirates through 2029, expanding AI and cloud infrastructure while building computing capacity and training local workers.
More than $7.3 billion was invested or spent from 2023 through the end of 2025. That amount included a $1.5 billion equity investment in G42, more than $4.6 billion in AI and cloud data-center capital expenses, and more than $1.2 billion in local operating expenses and cost of goods sold.
Microsoft plans to spend more than $7.9 billion from 2026 through 2029. More than $5.5 billion is allocated to AI and cloud infrastructure, while almost $2.4 billion is planned for local operating expenses and cost of goods sold.
“All told, Microsoft will invest $15.2 billion USD in the UAE between the start of this initiative in 2023 and the end of this decade, in 2029,” Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, said in the announcement. “This is not money raised in the UAE. It’s money we’re spending in the UAE.”
The plan combines data-center construction, advanced computing capacity, Microsoft’s investment in G42 and workforce training. Export licenses enabled computing capacity equivalent to 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs using a mix of A100, H100 and H200 chips.
Licenses approved in September 2025 enabled Microsoft to ship additional capacity equivalent to 60,400 A100 GPUs involving Nvidia GB300 chips. The figures refer to equivalent computing capacity rather than necessarily the same number of physical A100 chips.
Microsoft and G42 also announced a 200-megawatt expansion of UAE data-center capacity through G42 subsidiary Khazna Data Centers. The new capacity is expected to begin coming online before the end of 2026.
Microsoft aims to train one million people in the UAE by the end of 2027. The initiative is built around “technology, talent, and trust.”
The G42 partnership includes a binding framework covering cybersecurity, physical security, export controls, technology transfer, data protection, responsible artificial intelligence and know-your-customer practices.
The UAE is also being positioned as a regional base for AI services with access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers and Microsoft. Generative AI use reached 59.4% of the UAE population, compared with 58.6% in Singapore.
