Will the Gulf become an AI superpower? | Economy

Energy-rich Gulf states are vying to become centers of electricity-consuming artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, betting on the technology to power everything from economic diversification to government services, the Financial Times reports.

According to a report in the newspaper, the deals unveiled during the U.S. president’s visit highlighted Donald Trump to the region last month, Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s aspirations to become AI superpowers.

This includes a partnership between chip giant Nvidia and Humin, a newly formed AI group backed by the Saudi government that has ambitious plans to launch a $10 billion investment fund and secure investments from U.S. tech companies.

Abu Dhabi has announced a massive set of data centers for OpenAI and other US companies as part of its Stargate project, and the emirate, which manages $1.7 trillion in sovereign wealth funds, is investing billions of dollars through its MGX AI fund, and its Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence is opening a center in Silicon Valley.

“The Gulf states have the capital, the energy and the political will,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Fellow Sam Winter-Levy was quoted as saying, adding: “The only thing they didn’t have was chips and people with talent. Now (after Trump’s visit) they may have the chips.”

The skills challenge

Experts warn that the region’s vast AI ambitions may face challenges, as both countries lack a skilled workforce Silicon Valley or Shanghai, and scientific research outputs lag behind other countries.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are investing in artificial intelligence and relying on rapidly evolving technology to help them promote economic diversification and reduce dependence on oil revenues. fossil fuels volatile.

Both countries want to host the massive data centers needed to train and run powerful AI models, and Humain plans to build “AI factories” powered by hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips over the next five years.

American chipmaker AMD has pledged to provide chips and software for data centers “stretching from Saudi Arabia to United States” in a $10 billion project.

While heat-emitting data center providers typically opt for cooler regions, Gulf states see the abundance of land and cheap energy as a substitute for scorching summer temperatures.

Vulnerability of Leading Companies

For all their ambitions, Gulf countries do not have a leading company developing AI models, such as OpenAI, China’s DeepSeek or France’s Mistral, and lack a high concentration of AI research talent, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

To attract top AI talent, Gulf countries are attracting companies and researchers in the field of artificial intelligence from abroad with low taxes, long-term “golden visas” and lax regulations.

Data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from the LinkedIn jobs network shows that the third highest level of migration of people with AI skills between 2019 and 2024 was to the UAE, with the Gulf country following other low-tax countries such as Luxembourg and Cyprus.

GCC countries are seeking partnerships with Western entities to boost their technological aspirations. Last week, UAE-based AI group G42 announced a partnership with Mistral to develop AI platforms and infrastructure. It has also partnered with US chipmaker Cerebras, which runs its own supercomputers, and last year it tapped Microsoft, which invested $1.5 billion to buy a minority stake.

The Chinese challenge

U.S. experts warn of the leakage of U.S. technology to ChinaMany in the U.S. security establishment are concerned about relations with the Gulf states if they become AI competitors.

Jamie Goodrich, senior advisor for technology analysis at RAND, was quoted: “The concern is that[the Gulf states]in their quest for competitiveness, will take shortcuts and use a lot of Chinese labor or even Chinese companies. “That opens the door to security risks.

He added that Chinese companies may resort to circumventing restrictions on U.S. technology.