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Stargate UAE data centre to come online in 2026

By Chris Hamill-Stewart
President Donald Trump is greeted by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The first phase of Stargate UAE, the UAE-US collaboration, is planned to launch next year Alamy via Reuters
President Donald Trump is greeted by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The first phase of Stargate UAE, the UAE-US collaboration, is planned to launch next year
  • Stargate is part of a UAE-US AI Campus
  • Able to train AI models
  • Will use Nvidia GPUs

The first phase of a massive new data centre agreed during Donald Trump’s visit to the UAE will come online in 2026.

Stargate UAE is planned to be a 1 gigawatt data centre cluster capable of training AI models.

The project is a collaboration between UAE-backed G42, ChatGPT creators OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Softbank Group and Cisco.

The first phase will be concluded in 2026, when a 200 megawatt data centre is scheduled to launch, according to a statement by G42.

Data centres provide shared access to applications and data using a complex network, storage infrastructure and potential output, which is also known as compute and is measured in megawatts of energy consumed.

Stargate UAE will be part of the UAE-US AI Campus agreed during President Donald Trump’s UAE visit last week.

When complete, the 10-square-mile artificial intelligence campus in Abu Dhabi will be the largest such facility outside of America. The campus will have a capacity of 5 gigawatts.

It will be powered by nuclear, solar and natural gas.

The first phase of Stargate UAE will use hundreds of thousands of advanced Nvidia GPUs. This is made possible by Washington’s cancellation of export controls to the UAE following an Emirati charm offensive, promises of investment in the US and a severing of G42’s China investments.

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