logo
Dubai's du announces $544mln hyperscale data center deal with Microsoft

Dubai's du announces $544mln hyperscale data center deal with Microsoft

Zawya23-04-2025

The Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (du) on Tuesday announced a 2 billion dirhams ($544.54 million) hyperscale data center deal with Microsoft.
The hyperscale data center, to be built and operated at a cost of around 2 billion dirhams, will have Microsoft as the main tenant and its capacity will be delivered in tranches, du said in a statement.
Hyperscale centers are large facilities that are mainly used to provide data storage and cloud computing services to businesses at scale.
The deal, made during Dubai AI Week, "represents a pivotal leap in our strategic goal to revolutionise the digital ecosystem of the UAE", Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du, said.
Currently, du operates five data centers across the United Arab Emirates, which has been heavily investing to become a global hub for AI outside of the US. ($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Elwely Elwelly, Writing by Menna Alaa El-Din; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Shailesh Kuber)

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Oracle shares soar as AI cloud demand propels revenue forecast
Oracle shares soar as AI cloud demand propels revenue forecast

Zawya

time31 minutes ago

  • Zawya

Oracle shares soar as AI cloud demand propels revenue forecast

Oracle shares surged nearly 8% in premarket trading on Thursday after the company raised its annual revenue forecast, driven by strong demand for its AI-related cloud services. The stock has risen nearly 6% so far this year as confidence in the software sector remained strong despite geopolitical tensions, even as analysts warn that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs could undermine Big Tech's AI investments. Earlier this year, Oracle, whose cloud offerings help companies build their AI infrastructure, announced a joint venture called Stargate to deliver large-scale computing capabilities to OpenAI. "Oracle's once-stodgy image levels up to 'cloud-native mage,' and the competitive map now looks less like a classic three-player real time strategy and more like a battle-royale with everyone dropping in, looking for compute loot", said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner at Running Point Capital Advisors. Oracle expects total revenue to be at least $67 billion for fiscal 2026, CEO Safra Catz said on a post-earnings call. The Texas-based company's cloud services quarterly revenue rose 14% to $11.70 billion. Its overall revenue of $15.90 billion beat estimates of $15.59 billion. At least nine brokerages have raised their price target post-earnings. Oracle trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 25.86, compared to rivals Microsoft at 31.34 and Amazon at 31.80, according to data compiled by LSEG. Microsoft's stock has gained 12.16%, while Amazon's has decreased by 2.8% so far this year. "ORCL has entered an entirely new wave of enterprise popularity that it has not seen since the Internet era in the late 90s," analysts at Piper Sandler added. (Reporting by Rashika Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

E& enterprise and Microsoft join forces to drive AI adoption across industries
E& enterprise and Microsoft join forces to drive AI adoption across industries

Zawya

timean hour ago

  • Zawya

E& enterprise and Microsoft join forces to drive AI adoption across industries

With a focus on GenAI, development and implementation of scalable solutions to meet market-specific demands across UAE, KSA, Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar Dubai – e& enterprise, the digital transformation arm of global technology group e&, is further building on its strategic partnership with Microsoft. By joining forces, both entities are prioritising the development and deployment of next-generation AI and data-driven solutions to bolster AI adoption across industries in target markets across the MENAT region, including UAE, KSA, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. Amit Gupta, Vice President, Data & AI, e& enterprise, said: 'Our partnership with Microsoft represents a bold step toward redefining the role of AI in shaping the future of business and society. This collaboration combines e& enterprise and Microsoft's technological expertise and deep market insights to deliver transformative solutions that resonate with the unique dynamics of the MENAT region. Together, we aim to promote digital readiness and bridge the digital divide by providing essential sectors with next generation AI and data-driven tools, powering them to drive improved customer interactions, optimise operations, and drive broader innovation.' Ahmed Hamzawy, Chief Partner Officer, Microsoft UAE at MS, said: 'Our partnership with e& enterprise will give a significant boost to driving AI adoption across businesses. By leveraging our combined technological expertise, and the safe and secure properties of Microsoft's cloud and AI services, we are empowering organisations to better detect fraud, improve risk management and deliver personalised services through AI-driven insights to their customers.' The partnership focuses on providing scalable AI solutions tailored to the unique needs of various industries, including public sector, telco, education, BFSI and retail. By equipping businesses with the tools needed for digital transformation, e& enterprise and Microsoft aim to empower organisations to adapt, innovate, and thrive in an increasingly data-driven world. With industry-specific AI solutions, the partnership is designed to address a wide range of use cases across sectors. Additionally, the collaboration takes a region-specific approach to implementing and scaling these solutions across key, diverse, and digitally demanding markets, including the UAE, KSA, Egypt, Türkiye, and Qatar. This ensures that local market needs are met while tackling broader industry challenges, ultimately enhancing efficiency, customer engagement, and decision-making. As part of its focus on developing GenAI solutions, the partnership will leverage various product offerings under Microsoft's Azure Cloud platform. Tools such as Azure Machine Learning, an end-to-end machine learning platform; Azure Databricks, a unified, open analytics platform; and Azure AI Search, Microsoft's search and retrieval system, will support data processing, model training, and deployment. Azure Synapse Analytics is another analytics tool that will support data integration and analytics, enabling large-scale data processing for organisations across sectors. Additionally, with the integration of Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service, organisations will be able to leverage a suite of GenAI solutions for automating customer service, content creation, and predictive analytics. Azure Power BI is a self-service analytics solution that enables businesses to visualise data, share insights, and embed them into their apps or websites. This tool will support businesses in making informed decisions. Meanwhile, Azure Data Lake Storage and Snowflake will facilitate the storage and management of large datasets, as well as real-time analytics, across the target markets of this partnership: UAE, KSA, Qatar, and Egypt. These solutions from Microsoft combined with e& enterprise's comprehensive suite of hybrid cloud solutions aim to drive seamless digital transformation, as part of this strategic alliance. e& enterprise's Cloud Strategy and Advisory services will help organisations design tailored adoption strategies, while Migration and Adoption will ensure smooth transitions with minimal disruption. By providing organisations with Managed Cloud Services, and Cloud Security, e& enterprise will empower organisations to drive long-term efficiency and safeguard data, ensuring compliance and resilience. To promote responsible and ethical AI adoption, the partnership will implement Microsoft's Responsible AI principles and framework and e&'s Responsible AI Framework across all its development and deployment stages. This aligns with both entities' shared commitment to prioritising data privacy, transparency, and compliance with corporate and national policies. Contact: e& Media Office Shilpa Villait: svillait@ Nancy Sudheer: nsudheer@ Amer Obaid: amerobaid@ Noha Serageldin: nserageldin@ Grace Eid: Eid: geid@ mediaoffice@ About e& enterprise e& enterprise is a digital transformation leader supporting governments and large-scale organisations in building and scaling their digital core. Through optimising operations, enhancing customer engagement, and data-driven decision-making, we enable seamless, sustainable, and secure transitions into the evolving digital world. Currently operating in the UAE, KSA, Egypt, Oman, Türkiye, Qatar, and South Africa, e& enterprise brings cutting-edge digital scalable solutions designed to deliver tangible business value and address the unique challenges faced by organisations and executives across industries. With a proven track record as a trusted digital transformation partner, technical expertise, and the ability to deploy and manage complex solutions, e& enterprise provides collaborative tailored solutions that empower customers to navigate their end-to-end digital transformation journey. To learn more about e& enterprise, please visit

US Stocks: Wall Street ends higher as investors track US-China trade talks
US Stocks: Wall Street ends higher as investors track US-China trade talks

Zawya

timea day ago

  • Zawya

US Stocks: Wall Street ends higher as investors track US-China trade talks

The S&P 500 ended higher on Tuesday, lifted by a rally in Tesla as investors bet on positive results from U.S.-China trade talks aimed at defusing a tariff dispute that has roiled global markets this year. Wall Street expects improved trade terms after relief from a preliminary deal struck last month was overshadowed by Washington's allegations that Beijing was blocking exports of rare earth minerals critical to the aerospace, semiconductor and defense sectors. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the trade talks were going well and he hoped they would end on Tuesday night, but said they could run into Wednesday. The U.S. stock market has surged in recent weeks, recovering from an April slump sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" sweeping global tariffs. With investors betting the United States will reach trade agreements that reduce Trump's steep trade barriers, the S&P 500 is now trading just below its February record highs. "The expectation is that they'll figure this out, and that the Liberation Day tariff levels are never going to be seen. You can't get to market valuations where we've got them and have those tariff levels get anywhere close to reality," said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments. Shares of Wall Street's most valuable companies were mixed. Tesla rose 5.6%, while Microsoft slipped 0.4%. Alphabet climbed 1.4% after Reuters reported that OpenAI plans to add Alphabet's Google cloud service to meet its growing needs for computing capacity. The S&P 500 climbed 0.55% to end the session at 6,038.81 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.63% to 19,714.99 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25% to 42,866.87 points. Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, 10 rose, led by energy , up 1.77%, followed by a 1.19% gain in consumer discretionary. Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 18.5 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.9 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. Investors are awaiting U.S. consumer prices data on Wednesday for clues to the Federal Reserve's rate trajectory. The World Bank slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by 0.4 percentage point to 2.3%, saying higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a "significant headwind" for nearly all economies. Insmed shares jumped almost 29% after the drugmaker said its experimental drug significantly reduced blood pressure in the lungs and improved exercise capacity in patients in a mid-stage study. J.M. Smucker's shares tumbled 15.6% after the Jif peanut butter maker forecast annual profit below estimates. Snap ended down 0.1% after the social media platform said it would launch its first-ever smart glasses for all consumers next year, ratcheting up competition with Meta in the wearable technology market. Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 2.0-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 12 new highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 75 new highs and 45 new lows. (Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Purvi Agarwal; Editing by Devika Syamnath, Pooja Desai and Aurora Ellis)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store