Abu Dhabi-based technology group G42 has delivered a significant progress update on Stargate UAE, confirming that construction of the 200-megawatt first phase of what will become the world's largest artificial intelligence infrastructure campus outside the United States is advancing on an accelerated timeline toward delivery in 2026. The update, issued through G42's data centre subsidiary Khazna Data Centers, reveals that civil, structural, and architectural construction is well advanced, mechanical and electrical systems are being finalised, key modular components are in production, and the first deliveries of critical mechanical systems have already arrived on the sprawling Abu Dhabi campus.
The Stargate UAE project, announced in May 2025 through a historic partnership between G42, OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, and SoftBank Group, represents one of the most ambitious artificial intelligence infrastructure investments ever undertaken. When fully completed, the campus will span 19.2 square kilometres — approximately nine times the size of Monaco — and deliver a total of 5 gigawatts of computing power, with the initial 1-gigawatt cluster serving as the foundation for what G42 has described as an "Intelligence Grid" designed to enable an AI-native society across the UAE and beyond.
Construction Progress: From Blueprint to Reality
The latest update from Khazna Data Centers paints a picture of a project that has moved decisively from the planning and design phase into full-scale physical construction. The company confirmed that design and engineering work is progressing to plan across all elements of the first phase, with multiple construction workstreams operating simultaneously to maintain the aggressive delivery timeline.
Civil, structural, and architectural construction is described as "well advanced," indicating that the foundational building work — excavation, concrete pouring, steel erection, and building envelope construction — is substantially complete or nearing completion. The scale of this foundational work is extraordinary: more than 5,000 workers are deployed on the site, and the construction has consumed over 100,000 cubic metres of concrete. The steelwork alone weighs approximately 1.5 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, a statistic that conveys both the physical magnitude and the engineering complexity of the undertaking.
Construction Scale: More than 5,000 workers are deployed on the Stargate UAE site, with construction consuming over 100,000 cubic metres of concrete and steelwork weighing 1.5 times the Eiffel Tower. All long-lead equipment has been procured, and first mechanical system deliveries have arrived on site.
The mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems — the critical infrastructure that will power, cool, and sustain the thousands of AI processors housed within the facility — are being finalised. This phase of construction is particularly demanding for AI data centres, which generate extraordinary amounts of heat and require sophisticated cooling systems capable of maintaining optimal operating temperatures around the clock, even in Abu Dhabi's desert climate where ambient temperatures routinely exceed 45 degrees Celsius during summer months.
Key modular components are now in production, a detail that suggests Khazna is employing a modular construction approach in which standardised computing and cooling modules are manufactured off-site and then assembled and connected on location. This methodology, increasingly favoured by hyperscale data centre operators worldwide, enables faster construction timelines, higher quality control, and greater flexibility to scale capacity incrementally.
The Technology Stack: NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB300
At the heart of Stargate UAE's computing capability will be NVIDIA's latest and most powerful AI processors: the Grace Blackwell GB300 systems. These represent the cutting edge of AI computing hardware, offering unprecedented performance for the training and inference of large-scale artificial intelligence models. The Mubadala-backed G42 has secured the equivalent of up to 35,000 Blackwell chips for the facility, a procurement that represents one of the largest single orders of advanced AI hardware outside of the major US technology companies.
The Grace Blackwell architecture combines NVIDIA's Grace ARM-based CPU with its Blackwell GPU, creating a unified computing platform that delivers exceptional performance per watt — a critical metric for data centres where energy consumption and cooling requirements are primary operational challenges. The GB300 variant is specifically designed for dense, rack-scale AI deployment, making it ideally suited to the hyperscale configuration planned for Stargate UAE.
"The procurement of up to 35,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GB300 systems positions Stargate UAE among the most powerful AI computing facilities anywhere in the world. This is not merely a data centre; it is a national strategic asset that will underpin the UAE's AI capabilities for the next generation."
Industry Analysis, AI Infrastructure Report 2026
The sheer scale of the computing power being assembled in Abu Dhabi is difficult to overstate. To put the 200-megawatt first phase in perspective, a typical enterprise data centre in the region operates at 10 to 30 megawatts. The first phase alone will deliver computing power equivalent to approximately seven to twenty conventional data centres, while the full 1-gigawatt cluster will represent a concentration of AI computing capability rivalled only by the largest facilities operated by US hyperscalers in North America.
The Partnership: A Global Alliance of Technology Titans
Stargate UAE is the product of an extraordinary consortium that brings together some of the most powerful names in global technology and investment. Each partner contributes a distinct and essential capability to the project, creating a collaboration whose combined resources exceed what any single entity could marshal independently.
G42 and Khazna Data Centers
G42, the Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company backed by Mubadala Investment Company, serves as the anchor partner and local developer. Through its subsidiary Khazna Data Centers, the UAE's largest data centre operator, G42 is managing the physical construction and will operate the facility. Khazna's experience in building and running hyperscale data centres in the Gulf region's challenging climate provides essential operational expertise.
OpenAI
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and one of the world's most influential AI companies, will operate computing workloads on the Stargate UAE infrastructure. The partnership gives OpenAI access to significant computing resources outside the United States, while providing the UAE with a direct connection to one of the companies driving the frontier of AI research and development.
Oracle
Oracle brings its enterprise cloud infrastructure expertise to the partnership, contributing to the design and deployment of the software and platform layers that will sit atop the physical hardware. Oracle's cloud infrastructure, optimised for AI workloads, will enable organisations to access Stargate UAE's computing resources through familiar cloud interfaces and APIs.
NVIDIA
As the world's leading designer of AI computing hardware, NVIDIA's contribution of Grace Blackwell GB300 systems provides the raw computational muscle that makes the entire project possible. NVIDIA's involvement also extends to software optimisation, with the company's CUDA programming platform and AI software frameworks ensuring that applications running on Stargate UAE can extract maximum performance from the hardware.
Cisco and SoftBank Group
Cisco contributes its zero-trust security architecture and AI-ready networking connectivity, ensuring that the facility meets the highest standards of cybersecurity — a critical consideration for a facility that will process sensitive AI workloads for government and enterprise customers. SoftBank Group, the Japanese technology investment conglomerate, brings additional financial resources and its global network of technology investments to the partnership.
G42's Intelligence Grid Vision
Stargate UAE is not a standalone project but a central component of G42's broader vision for what the company calls the "Intelligence Grid" — a distributed network of AI computing infrastructure designed to support the UAE's transformation into what G42 describes as an "AI-native society." The concept envisions AI computing power becoming as ubiquitous and accessible as electricity, available to government agencies, enterprises, researchers, and entrepreneurs across the nation through standardised interfaces and scalable deployment models.
"We are building more than a data centre. We are constructing the foundation of an AI-native society, where intelligent computing is woven into the fabric of everyday life, government services, business operations, and scientific research. Stargate UAE is the physical manifestation of this vision."
G42 Strategic Vision Statement
The Intelligence Grid concept aligns closely with the UAE's national AI strategy and Dubai's D33 economic agenda, both of which identify AI infrastructure as a critical enabler of economic diversification and growth. By building domestic AI computing capacity at unprecedented scale, the UAE aims to reduce its dependence on overseas computing resources and create a sovereign AI infrastructure that can support sensitive government applications, drive innovation across the private sector, and attract international AI companies seeking access to world-class computing facilities in a strategically located and business-friendly jurisdiction.
Strategic Significance for the UAE
The geopolitical and economic significance of Stargate UAE extends far beyond the boundaries of the Abu Dhabi campus. At a time when access to advanced AI computing infrastructure has become a matter of national strategic importance, the project positions the UAE as one of only a handful of nations capable of hosting frontier-scale AI operations.
The concentration of AI computing power being assembled in Abu Dhabi will serve as a magnet for AI companies, researchers, and talent from around the world. Companies that require large-scale computing resources for training AI models, processing massive datasets, or deploying AI-powered services at scale will find in Stargate UAE a facility that rivals anything available in North America or Asia, with the added advantages of the UAE's strategic geographic position, favourable business environment, and advanced digital infrastructure.
Global Positioning: Stargate UAE will be the largest AI infrastructure campus outside the United States, positioning Abu Dhabi and the broader UAE as a global hub for AI computing. The facility's 5GW full-campus vision places it in a category shared only by the largest US hyperscale operations.
The project also strengthens the UAE's relationship with the United States at a critical moment in the global AI competition. The partnership between UAE-based G42 and US companies including OpenAI, Oracle, and NVIDIA represents a deepening of technological ties between the two nations, creating mutual dependencies and shared interests that extend beyond the commercial realm into the domain of strategic technology cooperation.
Energy and Sustainability Considerations
A facility consuming 1 gigawatt of power — and potentially 5 gigawatts at full build-out — raises significant questions about energy sourcing and environmental sustainability. The UAE has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the development of massive AI infrastructure must be reconciled with this national commitment.
G42 has indicated that sustainability is a core consideration in the design and operation of Stargate UAE, though specific details about the energy mix powering the facility have not been fully disclosed. The UAE's growing portfolio of clean energy assets, including the Barakah nuclear power plant, the world's largest single-site solar park at Al Dhafra, and expanding wind and hydrogen capabilities, provides a pathway to powering AI infrastructure with low-carbon energy sources.
The cooling challenge in Abu Dhabi's desert environment is being addressed through advanced thermal management systems, including liquid cooling technologies that are significantly more energy-efficient than traditional air cooling for high-density AI computing workloads. The modular construction approach also enables the integration of the latest cooling technologies as they become available, ensuring that the facility can evolve to incorporate efficiency improvements over its operational lifetime.
Impact on the Regional AI Ecosystem
The presence of a facility of Stargate UAE's scale and capability is expected to catalyse the development of the broader AI ecosystem across the Gulf region. Startups and research institutions that previously lacked access to the massive computing resources required for cutting-edge AI work will be able to access world-class infrastructure locally, eliminating the latency, cost, and data sovereignty concerns associated with relying on overseas computing facilities.
Universities including MBZUAI, Khalifa University, and New York University Abu Dhabi are expected to benefit from proximity to the facility, with potential for research partnerships and access to computing resources that could accelerate the pace of AI research in the region. The pipeline of AI talent emerging from these institutions will, in turn, fuel the growth of AI companies and applications that leverage Stargate UAE's capabilities.
The commercial ecosystem surrounding the facility is also expected to grow significantly. Companies specialising in AI model development, data preparation, cloud services, cybersecurity, and AI consulting will find a ready market among the enterprises and government agencies seeking to leverage Stargate UAE's computing power. This ecosystem effect — in which a single anchor investment catalyses a broader wave of economic activity — is a pattern well established in the technology industry and one that the UAE's leadership is actively cultivating.
Timeline and What Comes Next
With the 200-megawatt first phase on track for delivery in the third quarter of 2026, the coming months will see construction activity reach peak intensity on the Abu Dhabi site. The transition from structural work to systems installation and testing represents a critical phase in which the facility moves from being a construction project to becoming an operational computing platform.
Commissioning and testing of the first phase is expected to involve extensive validation of power systems, cooling infrastructure, networking, and computing hardware before the facility begins accepting production workloads. Given the complexity and scale of the systems involved, this commissioning process is itself a significant engineering undertaking that will draw on expertise from all of the consortium partners.
Beyond the first phase, the buildout of the remaining capacity toward the full 1-gigawatt cluster and eventually the 5-gigawatt campus vision will proceed in stages, with each phase informed by the operational experience gained from earlier deployments. This phased approach allows the project to incorporate technological advances as they become available, ensuring that Stargate UAE remains at the cutting edge of AI infrastructure for years to come.
For the UAE, Stargate represents not just an infrastructure project but a statement of national ambition. In a world where AI computing power is becoming as strategically important as energy reserves or financial capital, the nation that builds the most capable and accessible AI infrastructure will hold a decisive advantage. With Stargate UAE taking physical shape in the Abu Dhabi desert, the UAE is making its bid to be that nation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Stargate UAE?
Stargate UAE is a 1-gigawatt AI infrastructure cluster being built in Abu Dhabi by G42's Khazna Data Centers, in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, and SoftBank Group. It is part of a larger 5-gigawatt campus spanning 19.2 square kilometres that will be the world's largest AI campus outside the United States.
When will Stargate UAE be operational?
The 200-megawatt first phase is on track for delivery in the third quarter of 2026. Construction is well advanced with all long-lead equipment procured and first mechanical systems already delivered to the site. More than 5,000 workers are deployed on the project.
What technology will Stargate UAE use?
The facility will be powered by up to 35,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB300 AI processors, representing the most advanced AI computing hardware available. Cisco provides zero-trust security and networking, while Oracle contributes enterprise cloud infrastructure optimised for AI workloads.
Why is Stargate UAE strategically important?
Stargate UAE positions the nation as one of only a handful of countries with frontier-scale AI computing infrastructure, reducing dependence on overseas facilities and creating a sovereign AI capability that supports government, enterprise, and research applications while attracting global AI companies and talent.
