In September 2026, the United Arab Emirates is readjusting its plan to build an artificial intelligence data center with a scale of 5 gigawatts. The project was originally planned to focus on a large centralized park in Abu Dhabi, but is currently considering dispersing some facilities to different regions and researching infrastructure safety solutions such as underground construction and explosion-proof design. This change indicates that, against the backdrop of accelerated construction of global AI infrastructure, Middle Eastern countries' focus on the computing power industry is extending from electricity, land, and investment scale to infrastructure security, supply chain resilience, and long-term stable operation capabilities.

From maximum construction to most stable operation

The overall project plan is about 5 gigawatts, involving UAE technology companies such as G42, and closely cooperating with the US technology industry. The Stargate UAE project was previously planned to first launch approximately 200 megawatts of computing power infrastructure and gradually expand it. Unlike traditional data centers, gigawatt level AI data centers have higher requirements for power supply, cooling, communication, and chip supply, essentially approaching a large-scale industrial infrastructure. When the construction scale increases from tens of megawatts to several gigawatts, data centers are no longer just computer rooms, but new infrastructure closely related to energy, communication, finance, and national security. The changing regional situation has further emphasized the security of critical infrastructure in Gulf countries. Some computing power facilities may be deployed in a decentralized manner, while researching underground facilities, explosion-proof materials, and higher-level security protection designs.

The Middle East continues to increase its investment in artificial intelligence

Gulf countries are accelerating their economic diversification transformation, with funding, energy, and land becoming important foundational conditions for the development of the AI industry. One of the biggest costs of AI data centers is electricity. The Gulf region has abundant natural gas and solar energy resources, as well as strong energy infrastructure construction capabilities, which provide natural conditions for the development of large-scale computing centers. The UAE is accelerating the construction of an AI industry ecosystem through sovereign funds, technology companies, and international cooperation. From an investment logic perspective, this is equivalent to extending the past energy advantage to the digital economy - exporting oil in the past and hoping to export computing power, data services, and artificial intelligence capabilities in the future. Keywords: Middle East News Network AI、 Computing power, artificial intelligence

Chinese Enterprises Embrace the Opportunity of AI Infrastructure Going Global

When AI data centers are upgraded from ordinary commercial buildings to high-level strategic infrastructure, the construction standards are raised accordingly. In the future, there may be an increase in demand for explosion-proof building materials, special fire-resistant coatings, structural reinforcement, backup power systems, high-grade fire protection systems, underground engineering, protective doors, intelligent monitoring systems, and more. For Chinese companies, in the past, they mainly participated in traditional infrastructure such as ports, highways, power plants, and real estate when entering the Middle East. The next round of projects will increasingly present a composite form of AI infrastructure, energy infrastructure, and security infrastructure. This type of engineering has higher technical content and supply chain complexity, which may bring high value-added equipment and material demand. The global AI competition is gradually entering the stage of comprehensive infrastructure capability competition from simply competing in computing power scale. Whoever can provide computing power in a stable and secure manner in the long term can truly form an advantage in the AI industry.Editor/Gao Xue