The Gulf compute race: who's building the most AI capacity

Across the Gulf, three countries are pouring capital into the physical foundation of artificial intelligence — the data centres and chips that everything else runs on.

The build-out, in brief

• UAE — Stargate UAE, a ~$30B Abu Dhabi cluster (G42, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Oracle), with a 200MW first phase due Q3 2026 and up to 5GW planned; plus sovereign models like Falcon and K2 Think.
• Saudi Arabia — HUMAIN (PIF), with Riyadh/Dammam data centres, the ALLaM model and a ~6GW ambition.
• Qatar — a reported ~$20B AI-infrastructure programme with Brookfield.

Taken together, the region is building one of the largest concentrations of AI capacity outside the United States. For builders, the practical upshot is more in-region compute, sovereign-model options and government programmes to tap.