OpenAI and Nvidia among companies building Stargate AI infrastructure in UAE

(CNN) — OpenAI and Nvidia will join other companies to build Stargate UAE, an artificial intelligence infrastructure cluster, in a sister project to the recently unveiled push to expand AI infrastructure in the United States.

Appearing alongside President Donald Trump in January, the CEOs of OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle said they would create a new company, called Stargate, to build out AI infrastructure in the US. The companies said they plan to invest up to $500 billion into the project in the coming years.

On Thursday, those three companies, as well as Nvidia, Cisco and local champion G42, announced in a statement their partnership to build Stargate UAE in Abu Dhabi. The project’s first part, a 200-megawatt AI “cluster,” is expected to go live in 2026, they said.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said in the statement that the project in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates is “a step toward ensuring some of this era’s most important breakthroughs – safer medicines, personalized learning and modernized energy – can emerge from more places and benefit the world.”

In a separate statement on its website, OpenAI said Stargate UAE has the potential to provide AI infrastructure and computing capacity within a 2,000-mile radius, reaching up to half the world’s population.

The project, agreed in close coordination with the US government, is the first international deployment of Stargate⁠, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure platform, the company also noted.

For his part, Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said the project in the UAE would “power the country’s bold vision – to empower its people, grow its economy and shape its future.”

G42 will build the facility, with OpenAI and Oracle operating it, while Nvidia will provide some of the most advanced chips available.

Stargate UAE will run in the recently announced data center complex in Abu Dhabi, which will have 5 gigawatts of capacity – enough to power a major city.

The complex will be built by the US and the UAE, Trump announced last week during his visit to the country, and will eventually span 10 square miles.