With Stargate UAE, OpenAI is establishing the first international AI infrastructure and defining new standards for global artificial intelligence projects.
On May 22, 2025, OpenAI announced Stargate U AE as the first international deployment of its AI infrastructure platform. The project is part of the OpenAI for Countries initiative and is being developed in collaboration with the US government and a consortium of G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank. The investment includes a 1-gigawatt AI cluster in Abu Dhabi, 200 megawatts of which will be operational by 2026, as well as corresponding UAE investments in the US Stargate infrastructure.
The project positions the UAE as the first country with nationwide ChatGPT access, creating a regional AI center with a 2,000-mile reach that can potentially reach half of the world’s population. The strategic partnership reflects the geopolitical ambitions of both nations and is supported by the $1.4 trillion UAE investment commitment to the US.
Technical specifications and infrastructure design
The Stargate UAE cluster will initially deliver 200MW of computing power and scale to 1GW, equivalent to approximately one million NVIDIA GPUs running continuously. The full 5GW campus in Abu Dhabi spans 26 km² and utilizes a hybrid energy mix of nuclear, solar and natural gas to achieve sustainability goals.
The infrastructure is based on NVIDIA’s Grace Blackwell GB300 systems with 72 Blackwell Ultra B300 GPUs and 36 Grace CPUs per system. These have NVLink C2C connections with 900 GB/s bandwidth and micro-tensor scaling, which accelerates inference tasks by 50% compared to previous models. Cisco implements a zero-trust network architecture to protect data sovereignty, while Oracle manages the back-end operations.
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Geopolitical implications and strategic motivations
The UAE partnership with OpenAI comes after scrutiny of its ties to China, particularly through G42’s historic collaboration with Huawei and ByteDance. The Trump administration lifted Biden-era chip export restrictions, allowing the UAE to acquire advanced NVIDIA GPUs to counter China’s regional influence.
OpenAI plans to replicate the Stargate model in ten countries, starting with an Asia-Pacific roadshow led by CSO Jason Kwon. This reflects the trend of AI infrastructure acting as geopolitical leverage, with nations competing to host computing clusters that promise economic growth and technological autonomy.
Summary:
- Stargate UAE is the first international deployment of OpenAI’s AI infrastructure platform with a 1 gigawatt cluster in Abu Dhabi
- Strategic partnership between UAE, USA and tech consortium of G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank
- Nationwide ChatGPT access makes the UAE the first country with full OpenAI integration in public services
- NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB300 systems with 72 GPUs per system and 900 GB/s NVLink bandwidth form the technical backbone
- 5GW campus with hybrid energy mix of nuclear, solar and natural gas planned over an area of 26 km²
- Geopolitical realignment of the UAE from China cooperation to US-American technology partnerships
- OpenAI for Countries initiative aims to expand into ten countries to establish sovereign AI capabilities
- Cisco’sZero Trust security architecture protects data sovereignty in global AI model integration
Source: OpenAI
