Damac founder to invest $20b in US data centres, Trump reveals

President-elect Donald Trump announced an investment of at least $20 billion from Hussain Sajwani, the head of Damac Group, to build new data centres in the US, who confirmed the news to Gulf News. 

“This is an extremely exciting moment for us," said Sajwani, in a statement. Trump said the first phase of the investments would be in the states of Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, painting it as critical to keeping the US competitive in emerging technologies.

“The investment will support massive new data centres across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.

"Our foray into the US market in data centres represents a significant milestone in our journey to build a global digital infrastructure platform that will empower businesses today and in the future," added Sajwani.

"Leveraging our expertise in real estate and data centers, we aim to deliver best-in-class infrastructure that supports the next wave of cloud and AI growth, helping further to position the U.S. in the technology and global data ecosystem.”

Trump vowed to help move the deal quickly through the environmental and permitting process and cast it as the result of his election victory, saying his return to power was encouraging foreign business leaders to invest in the US.

During a press conference in December, Trump announced another major investment — a pledge from SoftBank Group Corp. to invest $100 billion in the US over the next four years — alongside the company’s chief executive officer, Masayoshi Son.

- with inputs from Bloomberg