FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 25, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
DUBAI (Reuters) -Microsoft and Abu Dhabi's G42 on Wednesday announced a 200-megawatt expansion of data centre capacity in the United Arab Emirates as part of an over $15 billion investment commitment by the U.S. tech giant in the Gulf country.
The expansion will be delivered through Khazna Data Centers, a unit of G42, and it is expected to start coming online before the end of next year, the two firms said in a joint statement, without providing further details.
Microsoft said this week its investment in the UAE will reach $7.3 billion between 2023 and the end of this year, with a further $7.9 billion earmarked for 2026-2029.
It also announced that President Donald Trump's administration had approved the export of advanced Nvidia chips for its data centres in the Gulf country, which has been spending billions of dollars to become a global AI hub.
Microsoft invested $1.5 billion last year to take a minority stake in G42, which is also backed by private equity firm Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, and the family office of billionaire investor Ray Dalio.
The expansion will provide further AI and cloud infrastructure to the UAE, "strengthening Microsoft Azure's secure, scalable, and sovereign cloud services," the two firms said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Federico MaccioniEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
