AI expected to contribute over $96 billion to the UAE's GDP by 2031
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to contribute over $96 billion to the UAE's GDP by 2031, with annual growth projected between 20-30 per cent, analysts say.
According to PwC, AI is expected to account for 13.6 per cent of the UAE's GDP, the highest among GCC countries — compared to 12.4 per cent in Saudi Arabia and 8.2 per cent in the rest of the GCC.
Ranked fifth globally in Stanford's Global AI Vibrancy Tool, the UAE has emerged as a global AI pioneer through a range of strategic initiatives. In 2017, the UAE launched its National AI Strategy 2031 to become a global leader in AI. The strategy targets enhanced productivity and cost reduction across sectors such as transportation, space, renewable energy, water, technology, education, environment, and healthcare — particularly in combating chronic and life-threatening diseases.
To support AI's growth, the UAE has significantly invested in information and communication technology (ICT) and internet infrastructure, through public, private, and foreign direct investments (FDI). During US President Donald Trump's visit to Abu Dhabi in May 2025, G42, an AI holding company based in Abu Dhabi, announced a partnership with OpenAI, Nvidia, Cisco, SoftBank, and Oracle to develop Stargate UAE — a 5GW AI data centre campus.
Phase one, with 200 MW capacity, is expected to be completed by 2026. Building such AI data centres is capital-intensive. For example, Nvidia's H100 GPUs cost around $30,000 each, and a hyperscale centre may need at least 10,000 GPUs, totaling $300 million. 'For context, OpenAI used approximately 20,000 GPUs to train GPT-4, while Meta and Microsoft each have centres with over 100,000 GPUs. These centres also consume vast amounts of energy — 100MW data centres consume electricity equivalent to 350,000–400,000 electric vehicles annually according to IEA estimates,' Mayed Al Rashdi, economics research manager at Emirates NBD, said in a note.
Between 2020–2025, the UAE attracted $4.89 billion in greenfield ICT and internet infrastructure FDI, an increase of more than 60 per cent on the existing stock of FDI in the sector. In early 2025 alone, the UAE secured $220.6 million in data centre investments. In March 2025, Microsoft announced plans to build sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure in partnership with G42, supporting Abu Dhabi's 2025–2027 strategy to become the world's first AI-native government. This infrastructure will process over 11 million daily interactions among government entities, citizens, and businesses. Microsoft also acquired a $1.5 billion minority stake in G42 in 2024. The two largest greenfield FDI projects came from Swiss firms Acronis and Swiss GRC, each investing $246 million. Switzerland ranks second behind the US in total capital investment in digital infrastructure and ICT in the UAE ($2.86 billion across 20 projects). The UK follows with $466 million from three projects, India with $356 million from one project, and Germany with $245.8 million from one.
The UAE has the highest number of data centres in the region — 35 — compared to Oman's 12 and Saudi Arabia's 11. Public cloud spending per employee stands at $228, the highest in the region according to data from BCG. Dubai hosts 18 of these centres, while Abu Dhabi has 16.
Despite having fewer centres, Abu Dhabi leads in value, with $1.23 billion in data centre assets versus Dubai's $815 million. Currently, 11 new data centres worth $3 billion are under construction and expected to be completed by 2026. Additionally, six data centres are in the pre-execution phase, valued at $41 billion ($40 billion of which is for the G42 UAE–US AI Campus). The growth of data centres has been hindered by the US' AI Diffusion Rule which restricted the import of advanced chips such as Nvidia's H100 and H200. However, in May 2025, the Trump administration rescinded this rule, enabling the UAE to import up to 500,000 of Nvidia's most advanced chips annually. 'This reversal has reinvigorated the UAE's data centre expansion efforts and is expected to accelerate the country's AI infrastructure development moving forward,' Al Rashdi noted.
Internationally, the UAE is the second-largest investor in ICT and internet infrastructure greenfield FDI ($70.6 billion), trailing the US ($283.9 billion). The UAE also leads in average capital expenditure per project at $2.35 billion across 30 projects, compared with the US's average of $378.6 million across 750 projects. G42 and Mubadala co-established the MGX Fund — a $100 billion vehicle for investing in global ICT, internet infrastructure, and semiconductors. MGX deployed $43.4 billion in partnership with Bpifrance, Mistral AI, and NVIDIA to build Europe's largest AI campus in France (1.4GW capacity).
MGX is also involved in Stargate USA, a $500 billion mega project to build 20 AI data centres across the US, in partnership with Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank. MGX has been active in private deals, investing $6.6 billion in OpenAI at a $157 billion valuation in October 2024 — now nearly doubled to $300 billion.
DAMAC Holding ranks fourth globally in ICT and internet infrastructure FDI, having invested over $20 billion in US data centres. Its first phase includes 500MW facilities across states like Texas, Arizona, Ohio, and others. DAMAC also invested $852 million across three cities in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Dammam, and King Abdullah Economic City) and is active in countries including Greece, Spain, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, and Ireland.
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