The latest:
Microsoft will spend more than $10 billion on cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, a senior executive said Wednesday. Brad Smith, the company’s vice chair and president, told Reuters the plan reflects continued infrastructure build-out and a wider expansion of operations across the region. He described the spending plan as ambitious.
Details:
- The figure: Smith told Reuters the commitment exceeds $10 billion across four Gulf markets through 2030, covering cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence. He said he could not break the sum down by country or by project, citing security considerations attached to some of that information.
- The war test: Smith said Microsoft kept every investment it had planned before the war with Iran broke out, and added to them rather than trimming. The company has placed growing weight on what it calls digital resilience in the region, given the risks now facing digital infrastructure and data centers.
- Infrastructure hit: Security risks from the war reached data centers belonging to major companies, according to Reuters, including cloud computing facilities operated by Amazon in Bahrain and the UAE. The report did not detail the extent of damage at those sites.
- Support to partners: Smith said Microsoft backed its local partners during the conflict, including by running digital resilience assessments. He said the company is now working with Gulf governments on readiness, data protection and the defense of critical infrastructure.
- Subsea networks: Beyond the headline figure, Microsoft plans to invest more than $400 million in subsea telecommunications networks and terrestrial infrastructure across the Middle East by 2030, Smith said. No individual route or landing point was named.
- The G42 stake: Microsoft is deepening ties with local AI firms, including Abu Dhabi’s G42, where it invested $1.5 billion in 2024 for a minority stake. The deal gave Microsoft a board seat, currently held by Smith himself.
- Saudi and Qatar: Smith said Microsoft is working with Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai in “selected priority areas” for each. He specified that the company has no plans for capital investments in either firm, marking a different model from the G42 arrangement.
- The Gulf bet: Gulf states are pouring billions into artificial intelligence to become global technology hubs and diversify away from oil and gas, drawing on cheap land and abundant power. The constraint is access to advanced chips, which remains difficult.
Between the lines:
The structure of the commitments is revealing. Microsoft took an equity stake and a board seat in Abu Dhabi, but is offering Saudi Arabia and Qatar partnership without capital. That gradation, alongside the refusal to publish country-level figures on security grounds, suggests the Gulf AI build-out is now being treated as a strategic exposure rather than a straightforward commercial expansion.
What’s next
Watch whether Microsoft discloses country-level allocations, how the $400 million subsea program is routed, and whether advanced chip export approvals loosen for Gulf buyers before construction milestones fall due.
