Data centres and compute
Data centres, chips, power and the build-out behind AI in the Gulf.
- UK company Yamna plans an AI data centre in Salalah, Oman
Yamna, a UK-founded company backed by British investment funds, is set to sign an agreement with Oman to build a large-scale AI data centre in Salalah, the UK government said on 21 October 2026, during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s state visit
- Nebius agrees in principle to be the first customer of HUMAIN’s planned AI campus at NEOM
HUMAIN, the Public Investment Fund company that builds AI services, and the data centre developer DataVolt announced a preliminary framework agreement with the AI cloud company Nebius on 21 October 2026. Under the proposed framework, Nebius
- What the Gulf is actually building: compute, power, models and people
A plain-language look at the physical and human foundations of AI in the GCC: data centres, electricity, home-grown models and talent. It separates what has been delivered from what has only been announced.
- CR-C01
Stargate UAE: 1GW cluster; first 200MW expected to go live in 2026.
- CR-C02
First 200MW phase "in place and ready at some point in the third quarter" of 2026.
- CR-C03
5GW UAE–US AI Campus: "largest outside the US"; nearly half the global population within 3,200 km.
- CR-C04
Campus work "on track" despite redesign.
- CR-C05
A UAE cluster could serve people "within a 2,000-mile radius, reaching up to half the world's population".
- CR-C06
The UAE will be "the first country in the world to enable ChatGPT nationwide".
- CR-C07
Up to 600,000 NVIDIA GPUs over three years (KSA and US); xAI 500MW+ flagship; AWS "AI Zone" up to 150,000 GPUs.
- CR-C08
HUMAIN–AMD–Cisco JV: up to 1GW of AI infrastructure by 2030.
- CR-N01
Data-centre electricity about 415 TWh (1.5% of global) in 2024, rising to about 945 TWh by 2030.
- CR-N02
"Concerns that AI could accelerate climate change appear overstated, as do expectations that AI alone will address the issue."
- CR-N03
AI-based fault detection can cut outage durations by 30–50%.
- CR-N04
Barakah generates about 40 TWh a year, "up to 25% of the UAE's electricity needs"; full fleet in commercial operation.
- CR-N05
Data-centre electricity roughly doubles from 485 TWh (2025) to 950 TWh (2030), about 3% of global demand.