UAE’s Stargate AI Data Centre to Exceed $30 Billion as Scope Expands

The updated figure highlights both the scale of the project and the UAE’s broader ambition to establish itself as a global hub for advanced computing and artificial intelligence development.

According to a report by The National, Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for AI, said that the cost of the Stargate project will exceed $30 billion, compared with earlier estimates of around $20 billion.

Earlier estimates had placed the cost closer to $20 billion, but officials say the vision for Stargate has grown significantly as planning progressed. The revised budget underlines how central large-scale computing infrastructure has become to national AI strategies, particularly as demand for high-performance compute continues to accelerate globally.

The Stargate campus will be built in Abu Dhabi and span roughly 19.2 square kilometers, making it one of the largest data center developments ever planned. Once completed, it is expected to deliver up to 5 gigawatts of power capacity, a level typically associated with national infrastructure rather than commercial technology facilities. The scale is intended to support energy-intensive AI workloads, including the training and deployment of advanced generative models.

UAE officials have positioned Stargate as a project with international relevance rather than a purely domestic asset. Al Olama has described it as a platform designed to support global collaboration, offering access to large-scale computing capacity for countries and organizations that may lack the resources to build such infrastructure independently. This approach aligns with a growing global focus on sovereign AI capabilities, where governments seek greater control over data, compute and strategic technologies rather than relying exclusively on foreign commercial cloud providers.

Development of Stargate is being led by Khazna Data Centers, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud company G42. The project has attracted a group of major international technology partners, including OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco and SoftBank, reflecting the scale of investment and the importance of the infrastructure being built. South Korea has also been cited as a participating partner, pointing to broader geopolitical interest in shared AI infrastructure and cross-border compute partnerships.

While detailed commercial terms have not been publicly disclosed, the involvement of hardware, cloud, networking and AI model developers suggests Stargate will operate across multiple layers of the AI ecosystem. Rather than focusing solely on applications, the project is aimed at strengthening the foundational infrastructure that underpins modern artificial intelligence.

Authorities have indicated that the first phase of the Stargate campus is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2026. If delivered on schedule, it would represent one of the fastest large-scale AI infrastructure builds globally, given the complexity of integrating power generation, cooling systems and advanced computing hardware at this scale.

Energy supply is a central consideration for the project. A 5-gigawatt data center would consume electricity on a scale comparable to that of a small country, placing significant demands on power generation and grid infrastructure. The UAE has been expanding its renewable energy capacity as part of its long-term economic and sustainability strategy, in part to support growing demand from data centers and other energy-intensive industries.

The UAE aims to exceed 22 gigawatts of clean energy capacity by 2031, with solar and other renewables expected to play a key role in powering future digital infrastructure.

The scale of Stargate highlights how access to compute has become a strategic asset in the global AI race. With models growing larger and more complex, the availability of reliable, high-capacity infrastructure is increasingly shaping where AI development takes place. The project reflects a deliberate shift by the UAE toward investing in the core layers of the AI economy, combining capital, energy planning and international partnerships.

Stargate is expected to play a role not only in supporting domestic AI initiatives but also in shaping how global organizations access and deploy advanced computing resources as construction continues. The project places Abu Dhabi at the center of a rapidly evolving AI infrastructure landscape, where technology, energy and geopolitics are becoming increasingly interconnected.