UAE Rethinks 5-Gigawatt AI Campus After Iranian Strikes

The United Arab Emirates is reworking the blueprint for a 5-gigawatt AI data center project, one of the largest planned outside the United States, after the Iran war forced a rethink of how and where critical infrastructure should be built, according to six people familiar with the deliberations.

Instead of a single 10-square-mile (26-square-kilometer) campus in Abu Dhabi, the project is now expected to take the form of a network of data centers distributed across the country, four of the sources said. The discussions have not been previously reported.

Authorities are also weighing stronger protections against drone and missile strikes, including air defense systems and placing some facilities underground, the sources said.

A flagship of UAE AI ambitions

The UAE-US AI Campus was announced during President Donald Trump's visit to the Gulf state last year and is central to the country's push to become a global AI hub as it diversifies away from oil. It is led by G42, an AI firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan, the national security adviser and brother of the president.

Under the arrangement, the UAE secured access to Nvidia AI chips and other advanced American technology in exchange for cutting AI ties with China and investing in the Stargate initiative's U.S. data centers. Stargate is a joint venture involving OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.

The sources included a U.S. official, a Western diplomat and industry executives briefed on the talks. It could not be determined how close Emirati authorities are to finalizing a new masterplan, or how far the changes might affect costs and timelines.

Construction on the first phase, a $30-billion, 1-gigawatt compute cluster known as Stargate UAE, began last year, with the first 200 megawatts of capacity due online this year. Oracle chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison has said the completed project would have enough capacity to connect every UAE government agency and commercial institution to the world's most advanced AI models.

G42 said work on the campus was progressing as planned, adding that the project's specifics are subject to continuous review in line with the security, resilience and operational standards expected of critical infrastructure at this scale. OpenAI said it was working with the UAE on its AI vision and making good progress on the infrastructure and adoption priorities needed to deliver it. The Emirati advanced technology ministry and American partners Nvidia, Oracle and Cisco did not respond to requests for comment, while Japan's SoftBank declined to comment.

Iran targets US-linked tech infrastructure

Emirati officials began reviewing the plans soon after Tehran launched missiles and drones at Gulf neighbors hosting American forces, in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Two Amazon Web Services data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain were damaged in the March attacks, and the company's cloud services in the region remain disrupted, according to its website.

In April, Iran's armed forces released a video warning that Stargate UAE was a potential target, including a map purporting to show the complex's location with the caption: "Nothing stays hidden from our sight." Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the site is near Al Dhafra Air Base, a location that had not been publicly known. The base on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi hosts U.S. troops and has been targeted during the war, which began in February.

Daniel Benaim, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Arabian Peninsula affairs and now a fellow at the Middle East Institute, described the conflict as an "economic earthquake" for Gulf states that had long marketed themselves as safe havens. "Changes to harden critical infrastructure are vitally necessary," he said, adding that every country in the region would look at reducing risk and reassuring international partners and investors.

The first phase of construction is expected to proceed as planned, though with modifications to shield the site from aerial attack, according to an industry executive and another person briefed on the matter. The remainder of the project will likely be spread across multiple locations, they said.

Beyond underground construction, officials are considering housing the most sensitive data, such as that used by the military, inside mountains, the two people said. Data centers have been built in disused mines, Cold War-era bunkers and caves in the United States, China and Europe. The UAE is mostly flat desert, but mountain ranges run through parts of the northern and northeastern Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah emirates.

Air defense systems are being folded into the redesign, including drone and missile interceptors and electronic jamming equipment, three sources said. Other likely measures include blast-resistant concrete and additional backup power and cooling systems, according to another source.