- Microsoft’s $15.2 billion spending in the UAE is not unimportant
- The country’s citizens are among the largest users of generative AI in the world
- This decision also aims to strengthen international confidence
Microsoft has committed to investing $15.2 billion in the UAE between 2023 and 2029 to expand its AI infrastructure and develop talent in the region.
The company’s investment goes even further by helping to build confidence in technology cooperation and partnerships between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, with Microsoft having already spent $7.3 billion on equity investments, capital expenditures and other ongoing expenses between 2023 and 2025.
Microsoft now plans to invest an additional $7.9 billion between now and 2029, a period that will see $5.5 billion spent on expanding AI and cloud infrastructure, as well as $2.4 billion spent on operating costs.
Microsoft plans to continue investing in the UAE
As part of its continued investments in the UAE, Microsoft has secured US export licenses for Nvidia GPUs while adhering to strict security and compliance requirements.
About 81,900 GPUs are now expected to be deployed, the company said, to be used for models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft’s own services.
Microsoft’s investment in the UAE isn’t coming out of nowhere – the country ranks first in the world for AI usage per capita, according to Microsoft’s recent AI Diffusion Report.
59.4% of the UAE population uses GenAI, ahead of Singapore (58.6%), according to the report, with no other country surpassing the 50% mark.
Speaking about its upskilling efforts, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company is on track to meet and exceed its goal of training one million people in the UAE by the end of 2027.
The final pillar of investing is about building 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 address this issue, Microsoft is leading the development of the Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement (IGAA) in collaboration with the UAE and US governments to ensure security, export control and technology transfer requirements are met.
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