Microsoft commits $15.2 billion to UAE as Middle East AI push accelerates

Microsoft just put a very specific dollar figure on its Middle East ambitions: $15.2 billion flowing into the United Arab Emirates between 2023 and 2029. The announcement, made on November 3, 2025, represents one of the largest single-country technology commitments the company has ever made outside the US. More than half of that figure is still ahead. Over $7.9B is earmarked for 2026 through 2029, with $5.5B of that dedicated specifically to expanding AI and cloud infrastructure. The rest covers operational costs, workforce development, and a notable $1.5B equity stake in G42, the UAE’s sovereign AI company. What Microsoft has already spent By the end of 2025, Microsoft will have deployed more than $7.3B in the UAE. That breaks down into three main buckets. The G42 equity investment accounts for $1.5B. Capital expenditures on AI and cloud data centers total over $4.6B. Operating costs make up the remaining $1.2B-plus. The investment includes deploying advanced Nvidia GPUs in the UAE, backed by US export licenses that clear the way for substantial AI processing power. Think tens of thousands of A100-class chips, the same hardware that underpins the most sophisticated AI models being...