Microsoft ramps up $15.2b UAE investment to supercharge AI growth

Dubai: Microsoft is deepening its long-term commitment to the United Arab Emirates through a sweeping $15.2 billion investment plan running from 2023 to 2029.

The programme, one of the company’s largest in the region, is designed to support the UAE’s goal of becoming a global centre for artificial intelligence, advanced cloud computing and digital transformation.

The plan spans new data-centre capacity, major AI compute investments, workforce development and expanded partnerships with government and industry.

A central part of the investment focuses on building advanced Azure cloud infrastructure. Microsoft and G42’s Khazna Data Centers are adding 200 megawatts of new capacity by the end of 2026, extending the reach of sovereign cloud services hosted inside the UAE.

The expansion builds on a $1.5 billion equity investment Microsoft made in G42, giving the company a position on the Abu Dhabi AI group’s board. More than $10 billion of the total investment is earmarked for cloud and AI data-centre development, while over $3 billion supports Microsoft’s local operations, research efforts and strategic partnerships.

Microsoft has also secured U.S. export licences to bring advanced NVIDIA GPUs — including A100, H100 and newer-generation chips — into the country to power the UAE’s growing AI infrastructure. These systems will support everything from large-scale model training to high-security workloads for both public and private sectors.

Talent development is another core pillar. Through the “Microsoft Elevate UAE” initiative, the company plans to train more than 250,000 students, academics and educators, along with 55,000 government employees, in advanced AI and cloud skills. The wider goal is to upskill one million people in the UAE by 2027.

The company’s AI for Good Lab in Abu Dhabi, along with the Engineering Development Centre, is helping develop national talent and support research on AI models for underrepresented languages. This strengthens the UAE’s push to position itself as a regional innovation hub.

Microsoft is broadening its partnerships across energy, finance, education and government to speed up digital transformation. Investments will help local industries modernise their operations, support the startup ecosystem and encourage adoption of next-generation technologies.

Amr Kamel, General Manager of Microsoft UAE, said the plan reflects “long-term confidence in the UAE’s vision and economic direction” and will deliver an integrated digital ecosystem aimed at improving productivity, performance and sustainable growth across sectors.

For the UAE, the multi-year expansion reinforces national strategies centred on AI leadership, digital sovereignty and economic diversification. For Microsoft, it strengthens its position in a competitive region where governments are rapidly adopting cloud infrastructure and experimenting with advanced AI systems.

The coming years will bring new data-centre rollouts, deeper technology partnerships and broader deployment of sovereign cloud services. With heavy investment in both hardware and human capital, Microsoft is betting big that the UAE will be a central node in the global AI economy — and the government is positioning itself to leverage that momentum.