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Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
As AI drives a new nuclear era, US tech giants and China reshape global power
As of March 2025, Google, Meta and Microsoft, the three biggest tech companies in the United States, pledged to triple their investments in nuclear energy by 2050. These plans highlight the sector's efforts to address one of the major challenges posed by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence: its immense energy demands. This renewed interest in nuclear energy marks a new phase in the technology's history. The development of nuclear power began in the late 1930s, as the US and the Soviet Union raced to build the atomic bomb. Shortly after the Second World War, the technology was redirected towards civilian and commercial use, leading companies to begin developing nuclear plants under state supervision. However, by the late 1970s, concerns over safety, the declining cost of other renewable sources such as solar and wind, and the global prevalence of oil led many countries - particularly democracies - to scale back nuclear development. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters China, by contrast, continued to invest. Over the following decades, it steadily expanded its nuclear infrastructure, positioning itself as a global leader just as the rest of the industry languished, with little development and declining appeal. Today, the convergence of China's state-led strategy and the private ambitions of western tech giants marks the beginning of a new nuclear era - one set to transform energy systems, accelerate the AI race, and reshape global power. Driving forces The revival of nuclear energy has been driven by a convergence of technological, economic and strategic factors. First, the astronomical growth in energy demand to power AI has rendered traditional sources increasingly inadequate. Tech companies have turned to nuclear power for its enhanced capacity and relatively low carbon footprint. Meta alone aims to generate 4 gigawatts (GW) of energy - enough to power up to three million US homes - a figure that illustrates the enormous energy needs of today's tech giants. Only the largest corporate players can afford the astronomical costs of nuclear energy - but the promise of AI-driven profits is drawing billions in investment Second, although nuclear energy is relatively inexpensive to operate, the initial capital costs are extraordinarily high and often exceed projected budgets. For example, generating 4 GW of power can cost around $40bn - more than the total energy budget of many countries. Only the largest corporate players can afford such investments. The promise of substantial AI-driven profits is one key incentive, spurring the rise of nuclear energy start-ups and drawing billions in venture capital. Third, since the early 2000s, the industry has seen major technological breakthroughs, including small modular reactors (SMRs), which are easier to transport and assemble, and microreactors, which require less human oversight. Meanwhile, Gen IV reactors can produce more energy through advanced processes. These innovations coincide with AI's increasing energy requirements - and, crucially, some have been made possible by AI itself, which enables large-scale simulations and reduces human interaction with reactors, thereby improving safety. Global stakes China, too, is advancing many of these innovations - but through a centralised, state-led framework for nuclear development that stands in sharp contrast to the market-driven approach of western tech firms. Still, a notable degree of public-private collaboration remains. Full state backing of this technology reduces regulatory hurdles and increases coherence in the entire project. In addition, China has focused on thorium reactors - operationalising its first in April 2025 - in place of uranium, to reduce dependence on western supplies. This was aided by China's early 2025 discovery of sufficient domestic thorium reserves to power its nuclear programme for decades. This unfolding nuclear era carries far-reaching global and political implications, beginning with the growing influence of tech companies in a space once dominated by governments. Their emergence as major players in nuclear development creates friction with US regulatory authorities, as commercial ambitions often run up against stringent licensing and safety protocols. While President Donald Trump has ramped up support for the industry, regulatory oversight remains a critical point of tension - especially given the risk that companies might prioritise speed and profit over caution, a pattern well-documented across the corporate world. Schrodinger's president: Trump's tariffs exist and don't - except on China John Rees Read More » These innovations also intensify the strategic rivalry between the US and China. With tariff wars having intensified since Trump came to power, tensions are already at fever pitch. While the Cold War arms race was measured in warheads, this new nuclear age will likely be defined by the number of reactors built - and the AI technologies they power. Nuclear energy is becoming another front in a widening struggle for global dominance. At the same time, both tech companies and China are now looking to export these innovations, particularly smaller nuclear reactors, to developing countries to help recover costs. While tech firms may face regulatory hurdles in doing so, China could take advantage of its vast trade networks under the Belt and Road Initiative to sell this technology more freely - potentially leading to major geopolitical shifts and further challenging US hegemony. Energy transition The rise of nuclear technology is also expected to have ripple effects across existing energy sources - particularly coal, natural gas and oil, in that order of magnitude. The energy shift underway could redraw political and economic power in the Middle East Coal, already in decline, is expected to lose what remains of its foothold. Gas and oil may follow, as carbon taxes and climate regulations intensify pressure for cleaner alternatives. Over time, this transition could shift the foundations of political and economic power, creating new dynamics in regions such as the Middle East, where many of today's energy giants are based. Nuclear technology, once seen as a Cold War relic, is experiencing a silent resurgence in innovation and funding - one that is set to transform not only energy systems, but the geopolitical landscape for decades to come. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
The National
2 days ago
- The National
How to cool AI data centres in the desert
In the epic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, there's a line from Omar Sharif's character, Sherif Ali, that inadvertently illustrates the current conundrum posed by AI data centres. 'The well is everything,' Sherif Ali tells T E Lawrence, pointing to a well – a subtle motif that recurs throughout the film emphasising how scarce and coveted water supplies are in the desert. Fast forward to 2025, and although water is more readily available throughout the region, supplies are still vulnerable. According to the World Bank, of the 17 most water-stressed countries in the world, 11 are in the Middle East and North Africa, making it one of the worst-affected regions. At the same time, the region is in the middle of an economic renaissance made possible through artificial intelligence. Along with the promise of AI, however, comes the need for huge data centres capable of handling all the commands from users around the world. The data centres, consisting of incredibly powerful servers with thousands of central processing units and graphics processing units, need to stay cool somehow. This cannot be achieved by the small fans we've grown accustomed to in our laptops and desktop PCs. Many of the newest data centres have elaborate air conditioning systems and geothermal cooling set-ups, but they also often rely on liquid-based cooling methods – and that's where water comes in. According to Alphabet-owned Google's 2024 environmental impact report, the company's data centres 6.1 billion gallons of water, a 17 per cent increase compared to 2022. While not all data centres are the same, experts tell The National that cooling methods pose a challenge in terms of equitably maintaining supplies. 'The Gulf's data‑centre boom is running head‑on into the laws of physics,' said Mohammed Soliman, director of the strategic technology programme at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank. 'AI workloads generate far more heat than traditional cloud operations, and in a region where summer air can hit 50°C, cooling at scale is the gating factor on how big you can build up at scale to capture a significant percentage of the global compute map outside of the US and China.' Unlike the US and Europe, the Middle East cannot count on ample supplies of cold water for heat exchange, he added. That simple factor means companies operating data centres in the Middle East will have to use what is known as two-phase immersion cooling systems. These systems can help recycle and save water, though it can be expensive and they are far from perfect. Mr Soliman said newer data centres planned for throughout the Middle East might also be able to be paired with existing desalination plants, so the heat generated by the centres can be 'put to work' rather than wasted. He added that while the warmer climate in the region poses an initial problem, technology is quickly evolving, and once the cooling and water conservation methods are perfected for data centres, the Middle East will ultimately benefit. 'If you crack the cooling challenge in the Gulf … you unlock the one missing piece in an otherwise world‑class AI ecosystem,' he said. 'It would give the Gulf the ability to compete head‑to‑head with the natural climate advantages of Scandinavia and Canada.' Innovations could lead to the Middle East being the most optimal place to 'bring chips online', Mr Soliman added. Even in climates deemed more ideal for data centres, problems persist when it comes to keeping them cool. In late March, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said so many people around the world were using a new feature in the company's ChatGPT offering that the company's own servers began to encounter problems. 'Our GPUs are melting,' he posted on X. OpenAI temporarily put limits on how many people could use the new feature, he added. Meanwhile, as data centre construction has boomed over the past decade, the cooling technology making it all possible has blossomed. According to Markets and Markets' research, as of 2025, the cooling sector was worth about $11 billion, and if current trends continue, it is set to reach $24 billion by 2032. With environmental stewardship remaining paramount in many countries, companies in the technology sector seem keenly aware of the need to improve the efficiency of data centres, along with the need to cut down on the water many of them use. Thar Casey, chief executive of AmberSemi, a company that has 'pioneering and patented' digital power management technology, said increasing efficiency was key to maintaining the cool temperatures necessary inside data centres. 'If we're cutting the losses inside the centres through efficiency, are we going to need that much cooling? The answer would be no,' he said. Mr Casey – who recently attended the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit along with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Mubadala's managing director and chief executive, and chairman of the UAE Executive Affairs Authority – said Gulf countries are showing tremendous interest in increasing the efficiency of data centres. He added that the UAE, which recently announced plans for 5GW UAE-US AI Campus, is showing a particular affinity for lessening the environmental footprint of data centres while maximising the newest cooling technology. 'It's extremely important to them and my message to these countries is that there is a way to solve the energy challenge inside the data centre,' he said, referring to AmberSemi's conversion lines and switch controllers used by semiconductor companies and makers of electrical products. Even the smallest increases of efficiency, Mr Casey said, could lead to significant electricity consumption, as well a major reduction in potential water used for liquid cooling methods of CPUs and GPUs. With the Middle East rapidly stepping up its AI ambitions, coupled with the region's affinity for improving water security, those data centre efficiencies could prove to be long-term game-changers.
Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Khaleej Times
AI without internet: How graduate from UAE's MBZUAI creates smart apps that work offline
When Daniel Gebre was growing up in Dekemhare, a small city in Eritrea, internet access was a rare luxury. He and his classmates would take turns using a single campus connection, share downloaded files, and rely on offline copies of Wikipedia just to study. That experience stayed with him — not as frustration, but as fuel. 'Growing up in a place where internet access was scarce, I know the frustration of being curious and eager to learn but constantly being held back by limited digital resources,' he said. 'That challenge pushed me to think about how technology could be made to work in environments like the one I came from.' Now 27, Gebre is a recent graduate of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), where he focused his master's research on how to bring artificial intelligence (AI) tools to people without internet access. His thesis project, iShrink, compresses large language models (LLMs) so they can run offline on mobile devices — an innovation aimed at students and professionals in low-connectivity areas. 'There were times in Eritrea when even downloading a simple document or video was a challenge,' he said. 'iShrink is about making sure people do not have to wait for internet access to be part of the AI conversation.' How it works 'In simple terms, iShrink is a framework designed to make large language models smaller and more efficient without significantly affecting their performance,' Gebre explained. 'It does this by identifying and removing parts of the model that are less important, then fine-tuning the remaining components so they still work well. This makes the models faster, lighter, and easier to run on devices with limited resources.' Shrinking smaller models poses a unique challenge, he said, because they contain fewer redundant parameters compared to larger models. 'Despite this, we achieved about a 22.5 per cent and 19.7 per cent size reduction on models such as LLaMA 3.1-1B and Falcon 1B respectively.' 'iShrink currently supports LLaMA, Falcon, and Qwen models, with plans to expand to other open-source architectures in the future.' To test the tool, Gebre developed a mobile application that runs entirely on a local device. 'The results were promising,' he said. 'In the future, I aim to enhance it with voice and multimodal capabilities to make it even more useful in real-world scenarios,' he added, 'I plan to make iShrink fully open source so it can be used and improved by the AI community.' Scholarship to the UAE Gebre moved to the UAE in 2019 on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, awarded to top engineering students in Eritrea. He completed his undergraduate degree in information technology at Zayed University with a focus on cybersecurity. It was during a research internship at MBZUAI that his direction changed. Mentored by Dr Moayad Aloqaily and Professor Mohsen Guizani, he became immersed in the possibilities of AI and how it could address real-world problems. 'They really encouraged me to explore AI more seriously,' he said. 'I had planned to pursue my master's elsewhere, but Professor Mohsen kept urging me to apply to MBZUAI. Eventually I did, and that decision changed everything.' Gebre described his first semester of graduate school as the most difficult academic experience of his life. He spent long nights reinforcing his math skills and adjusting to the pace of the programme. 'I had to catch up fast,' he said. 'There were days I studied until three in the morning just to stay afloat.' His perseverance paid off. He completed his thesis, co-authored three academic papers, and presented at international conferences, including the IEEE International Conference on Human-Machine Systems in Abu Dhabi. 'You really grow when you take ownership of your learning,' he said. 'It was difficult, but transformative.' From research to real-world impact Since graduating in May 2025, Gebre has joined Inception, a G42 company, as an Applied Scientist. He is now working on domain-specific AI solutions for industry — a transition supported by a prior internship at the Technology Innovation Institute. 'That was the first time I saw what it takes to bring AI into production,' he said. 'It gave me a much clearer picture of how research turns into impact.' While his focus today is on refining his skills in industry, Gebre's long-term mission remains unchanged: to expand access to technology for underserved communities. 'In Eritrea, many students still have not heard of tools like ChatGPT or Gemini,' he said. "Even at college, they often have to gather around one internet access point to download materials. The gap is real, which means the potential is even greater." Future plans "Absolutely," he said, when asked whether he plans to return to Eritrea to work on digital infrastructure and education. 'Given the current technology gap in our country, I want to be among the pioneers who lay the foundations for a thriving tech industry in Eritrea. My goal is to lead AI enablement programs across various domains and initiatives.' When it comes to Eritrea's many ethnic groups and languages, he believes the lack of digital representation is an issue that can and should be addressed. 'Our population is around six million, and while English is used in some areas, it is not universal,' he said. 'The main challenges are data and computation. As a small population country, gathering sufficient data is not easy. Most of our literature in local languages exists in hard copy form, so collecting these materials, digitising them, and preparing them for training is a significant but achievable task. With adequate resources and collaboration, it is certainly possible to build such a model.' 'At the moment, I am fully engaged in my role at Inception. In the future, I plan to launch an initiative to bring together individuals with backgrounds in AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to contribute to open-source projects that develop models aligned with Eritrea's diverse languages, cultures, and values.' Advice to students from under-served communities 'During a panel discussion at MBZUAI, one of my professors said that the key to excellence in any field is mastering the fundamentals, no shortcuts. That advice completely changed my perspective, and I would pass it on to anyone starting out in AI,' he explained. 'For students from backgrounds similar to mine, I would add that talent and good academic performance are not enough. The right mindset, consistent effort, strong interpersonal skills, and building a solid professional network are equally important in determining how far you can go.' When he received his degree, his mother was in the audience — a proud moment marking how far he had come. 'I am so grateful to the UAE for giving me this opportunity,' he said. 'It changed the course of my life.' He hopes his work is only the beginning. 'If iShrink or any part of what I have done can help students like me learn, explore, and grow — no matter where they live or what resources they have — that's the kind of impact I want to keep building.'
