Investing.com -- In a historic collaboration, OpenAI, G42, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984), and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced plans on Thursday to build Stargate UAE, a 1-gigawatt, next-generation AI compute cluster in Abu Dhabi. The facility will serve as the centerpiece of the newly announced UAE–U.S. AI Campus, a 5-gigawatt deployment aimed at accelerating AI innovation and scientific discovery.
Stargate UAE will be operated jointly by OpenAI and Oracle, with hardware support from NVIDIA’s latest Grace Blackwell GB300 systems and security infrastructure from Cisco.
Mass production is expected to begin in 2026, with the first 200-megawatt AI cluster slated to go live the same year. The full campus, spanning 10 square miles, will run on a mix of nuclear, solar, and natural gas, and will include a science park focused on sustainable compute and talent development.
“This is the first major milestone in our OpenAI for Countries initiative,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “We’re transforming a bold vision into reality... a step toward ensuring some of this era’s most important breakthroughs—safer medicines, personalized learning, and modernized energy ”
The announcement follows the recent launch of the U.S.-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership, an intergovernmental framework focused on building safe and responsible AI with long-term global benefits. Under the agreement, UAE organizations are also expected to deepen investment in U.S. infrastructure, including a parallel Stargate U.S. initiative.
Industry leaders underscored the project’s significance as a model for sovereign AI infrastructure. “With Stargate UAE, we are building the AI infrastructure to power the country’s bold vision—to empower its people, grow its economy, and shape its future,” said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.