Microsoft is making a massive $15.2 billion investment in the United Arab Emirates over 2023-2029. This huge sum will expand the company’s AI infrastructure and help train skilled workers in the region. This move also strengthens the trust and partnership between the US and the UAE in the technology sector.
Microsoft has already spent $7.3 billion in the UAE from 2023 to 2025 on items such as company shares, construction costs, and other ongoing expenses. Now, they plan to invest another $7.9 billion by 2029. Of this new amount, $5.5 billion will go towards growing AI and cloud infrastructure, and $2.4 billion will cover operating costs.
As part of these ongoing investments, Microsoft successfully got US export licenses for Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). They had to meet tough security and compliance requirements to get these. The company plans to deploy around 81,900 GPUs. These powerful chips will help run AI models for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft’s own services.
Microsoft chose the UAE for good reason. A recent Microsoft report, the AI Diffusion Report, shows that the UAE leads the world in AI usage per person. A high 59.4% of the UAE’s population uses generative AI, beating Singapore’s 58.6%. No other country passed the 50% mark.
Microsoft President Brad Smith shared that the company is on track to train over one million people in the UAE by the end of 2027, exceeding its original goal. Building trust is another key part of this investment. Smith explained that sending advanced GPUs and AI models across countries requires strong trust, especially given the export rules and trade issues involved. To ensure this, Microsoft is working with the governments of the UAE and the US to create the Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement (IGAA). This agreement ensures that security, export controls, and technology transfer requirements are met.
