- A 200 MW expansion will be delivered through Khazna Data Centers, a subsidiary of G42, with operations expected prior to the end of 2026.
- Microsoft’s investment in the UAE will total $7.3 billion by the end of this year, with a further $7.9 billion planned up to 2029, supporting the country’s goal to become a global AI hub.
What happened: Microsoft and G42 are deploying significant capacity in the UAE to meet surging demand
Microsoft and G42 announced on November 5, 2025 that they will expand data-centre capacity in the UAE by 200 megawatts through G42’s Khazna Data Centers unit. The expansion is scheduled to begin operations before the end of 2026 and forms part of Microsoft’s wider investment framework in the UAE.
As part of this effort, Microsoft disclosed that it will have invested $7.3 billion in the UAE by the end of 2025, and plans to invest an additional $7.9 billion between 2026 and 2029. The project also aligns with the UAE’s ambition to build sovereign, secure cloud and AI infrastructure.
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Why it’s important
The 200 MW expansion underscores the UAE’s strategic drive to become a global AI and cloud hub—adding substantial compute capacity that is both regionally localised and aligned with sovereign-infrastructure ambitions. By hosting large-scale, secure data-centre infrastructure, the UAE can reduce latency, improve resilience and better support regulated sectors and enterprise clients who seek region-specific cloud services.
For Microsoft and G42 the collaboration signals a shift from building traditional cloud regions to enabling AI-focused infrastructure at scale. The project may trigger competitive responses from other cloud providers seeking to establish or strengthen Middle Eastern footprints. Moreover, the scale and speed of the investment reflect that demand for generative-AI workloads, large-scale training and inference is no longer niche—but a core pillar of enterprise tech strategy globally.
