In short

  • Stargate UAE is a one gigawatt AI cluster planned in Abu Dhabi, inside a five gigawatt UAE-US AI campus. The first phase, 200 megawatts, was promised for 2026.
  • We found no announcement that any capacity is operating as of 26 October 2026. Epoch AI, a research group, estimates the first two buildings could be operational around 1 December 2026.
  • On 11 September, Reuters reported, citing six sources, that the five gigawatt campus will likely become a network of sites after Iranian attacks on Gulf states. G42 said work is progressing as planned.

How we work

We stick to documented facts, and we say whose numbers they are: the companies’ and governments’, a research group’s estimates, or press reports. The narration in the video is an AI-generated voice. We do not show the exact location of the site.

Who is who

G42 is an Abu Dhabi AI company. Reuters describes it as controlled by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser. Khazna Data Centers, a G42 company, builds the site. OpenAI and Oracle are named as operators, Nvidia supplies the computing systems, Cisco handles connectivity and security, and SoftBank takes part. Epoch AI lists G42 as the likely owner of the chips and OpenAI as the user.

Three numbers that are easy to mix up

Five gigawatts is the whole UAE-US AI campus, unveiled in May 2025. One gigawatt is the Stargate UAE cluster inside it. Two hundred megawatts is the first phase of that cluster. They are nested, not added together. On cost, the UAE’s AI minister said the campus will cost more than $30 billion, Reuters calls the one gigawatt cluster a $30 billion project, and Epoch estimates $37.9 billion for one gigawatt. Those are three different scopes and three different sources.

Why the UAE

OpenAI announced Stargate UAE on 22 May 2025 as its first partnership under OpenAI for Countries, and said it was developed in close coordination with the U.S. government. OpenAI says the cluster could serve a region within 2,000 miles, reaching up to half the world’s population. Reuters reports that in return for access to Nvidia chips, the UAE agreed to cut AI ties with China and invest in Stargate’s American data centers. That is Reuters’ account, not a published term of the deal.

What has been built

Khazna executives said in October 2025 that the site had been covered by a sand dune about forty feet high, with some 3,500 workers on site. G42 said all long-lead equipment had been procured. In December, Mubadala’s Khaldoon Al Mubarak said more than 5,000 workers were on site, with over 100,000 cubic meters of concrete poured. Epoch’s satellite review saw land clearing in June 2025 and two buildings, apparently 100 megawatts each, partly constructed by November. Its most recent image of the site is from that month.

The chips

In November 2025, the U.S. Commerce Department authorized exports to G42 of up to 35,000 Nvidia GB300-class chips. Al Mubarak said the UAE had only a couple of thousand chips at that point. G42’s CEO, Peng Xiao, said in January that the first shipments would come within months, followed by 200 to 500 megawatts of new capacity per quarter. He also said G42 gave assurances that the chips could not be diverted or accessed remotely by unapproved parties. An export authorization is not proof that chips arrived, were installed, or are running.

The export rule

A Commerce Department rule published on 14 July 2026 moved the UAE into a more favorable export category and lists G42 and its cloud arm Core42 as approved recipients of advanced computing items without a license. Law firm summaries say that approval lapses if G42 and Core42 do not become U.S. companies within about 270 days, which points to around April 2027. The rule does not remove other end-use checks.

How much is running

We found no announcement that any of it is operating. Al Mubarak said the first 200 megawatts would be ready in the third quarter of 2026, which ended on 30 September. G42 and Khazna have said handover is expected in 2026. Epoch projects the first two buildings operational around 1 December 2026, with the full gigawatt by January 2028, or the third quarter of 2027 in an optimistic case. Those are Epoch’s estimates. Epoch also notes that a similar Khazna data center in Ajman was delayed by more than a year.

The security story

Reuters reported that two Amazon data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain were damaged in March, and that in April, Iran’s armed forces released a video warning that Stargate UAE was a potential target. On 11 September, Reuters, citing six sources, reported that the five gigawatt campus will likely become a network of sites across the UAE, with air defenses, blast-resistant concrete, and some underground construction considered. The first phase is expected to continue with changes. G42 said work is progressing as planned and that the specifics are under continuous review. OpenAI said it is making good progress. No new masterplan or date has been published.

The electrical side

One gigawatt of load, running flat out, uses about as much energy in a year as roughly 800,000 average U.S. homes, using the 2022 EIA household average of 10,791 kWh per year. That is our arithmetic, not a company number. In a desert, cooling is harder, because outside air is hot and the heat has to be rejected into it. Epoch lists the cooling design as unknown, and we have not seen the companies publish one. Reuters’ sources describe backup power and cooling for hardened sites, which shows why this matters: the electrical and cooling plant is part of the security problem, not only the chips.

What is it, really?

Stargate UAE is the first test of exporting a Stargate-style cluster, with American chips and American operators, to a partner country. At the Dubai AI Festival, Peng Xiao said the ambition is to go from an energy exporter to become an intelligence exporter. Whether that works depends on three things the public can check: chips delivered, megawatts energized, and a security design that holds.

What we’re watching

  • Whether the first 200 megawatts are announced as live.
  • Whether the new masterplan is published, and what it does to the schedule.
  • Whether G42 meets the U.S. company condition by next spring.

Sources

  1. OpenAI, Introducing Stargate UAE (22 May 2025) Primary source , OpenAI
  2. G42 provides update on construction of Stargate UAE AI infrastructure cluster (16 Oct 2025, press release) Primary source , G42 (press release, reprinted by Web3Wire)
  3. Stargate UAE phase 1 in two years (16 Oct 2025) Khaleej Times
  4. Stargate UAE's first phase to be completed in third quarter of 2026 (5 Dec 2025) The National
  5. G42 CEO says company will receive first AI chip shipments within months (21 Jan 2026) Data Center Dynamics
  6. Exclusive: UAE revises AI data center plan after Iranian attacks, sources say (11 Sep 2026, Reuters) Reuters (via Al-Monitor)
  7. BIS liberalizes export licensing rules for shipments to the UAE (Jul 2026) Skadden (summary of the BIS rule)
  8. BIS eases US export controls for UAE: key opportunities and compliance considerations (Jul 2026) Greenberg Traurig (summary of the BIS rule)
  9. Frontier Data Centers: OpenAI Stargate UAE (updated 22 Jul 2026) Epoch AI (estimates from satellite imagery)
  10. UAE has opportunity to reinvent itself as exporter of intelligence rather than energy, says G42 chief (26 Oct 2026) The National

Updates and corrections

No updates or corrections since publication.