US and Gulf Join Forces in $2 Trillion AI Power Play

The emerging US & Gulf AI alliance marks a big spin in both geopolitical alignment and digital infrastructure development. At its core is the Stargate UAE campus, a project that by itself commands a $500 billion investment. But the broader picture is far more expansive. Saudi Arabia is committing another $600 billion to U.S.-based technology firms. When you factor in additional regional partnerships across Qatar, Bahrain, and others, the total financial scope of Gulf-driven AI investment now exceeds $2 trillion. This can be seen as a coordinated, capital effort to re-position the future of AI infrastructure away from Asia.

What makes this particularly important is the compute capacity being built into these projects. Stargate UAE will deliver 5 gigawatts in total, with the first 1 GW cluster scheduled to go online in 2026. Saudi Arabia is planning another 5 GW spread across multiple data centers. Data-center expansion on this scale can’t happen without enormous power reserves, and the Gulf is one of the few regions that can meet this demand consistently without compromising local grids.

Chip Deals and Policy Shifts in this AI Alliance

On the hardware side, the scale of chip commitments make the argument stronger just how serious this alignment is. NVIDIA is positioned to supply between 500,000 and 1 million of its most advanced chips annually to the region. AMD is delivering $10 billion in hardware to Humain, a Saudi firm built to complement the UAE’s G42. They are tied to fully funded infrastructure that is either under construction or already in the early stages of deployment. The partnerships also include major U.S. firms like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, and OpenAI all of whom benefit from the Gulf’s willingness to underwrite large-scale buildouts that would be more expensive and politically constrained in the U.S. or Europe.

Since the U.S. has eased export controls on AI technologies for strategic allies, and the Gulf has quickly become the primary beneficiary. The AI Action Plan, through executive orders, creates a licensing and governance framework that allows U.S. firms to share full-stack AI capabilities everything from chips to models to APIs without triggering national security restrictions. The Gulf states, in return, are expected to follow intergovernmental assurance protocols.

Gulf’s Moves to Become Global AI Powerhouse

For the Gulf countries, the goal is to convert the idea of “AI as the new oil” from a metaphor to reality. Sovereign wealth funds are being reallocated to create what regional leaders are calling a “compute engine” for the world. Rather than continuing to rely solely on fossil fuel exports, the GCC is trying to become essential in the global AI supply chain. 

Likewise, by joining forces with the U.S., the Gulf states are distancing themselves from China’s AI ecosystem. It won’t only relieve US’s domestic pressure on energy & AI infrastructure but also secures long-term partnerships for its leading chipmakers and software platforms. It also gives Washington more influence in shaping how AI is regulated globally. By exporting hardware along with governance architecture through executive orders and assurance agreements the U.S. is embedding its values into the next phase of global AI expansion.

The alliance between the U.S. and the Gulf, secured by Stargate UAE and supported by multi-gigawatt data centers and sustained chip pipelines, signals the beginning of a new AI geography. The infrastructure is being laid not in Silicon Valley or Shenzhen, but in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. With first clusters due by 2026 and export plans wrapping up by late 2025, the shift is moving quickly.