UAE and US companies have inked several agreements to collaborate on aviation and data centers, according to a White House statement released on Thursday. The collaborations are part of USD 200 bn worth of agreements signed during US President Trump’s visit to the Emirates, bringing the total investment ticket of his Gulf tour to USD 2 tn.

AVIATION-

Boeing jets incoming: Etihad Airways will invest USD 14.5 bn in Boeing and GE Aerospace for 28 Boeing 787 and 777X aircraft manufactured in the US by GE engines. The flag carrier currently has a fleet of around 100 aircraft, with CEO Antonoaldo Neves saying last month it plans toadd20 to 22 new planes this year in a bid to meet its target of 170 planes by 2030. The airline is gearing up for an IPO on the ADX.

REMEMBER- Boeing was heavily featured in the tour: Qatar’s flagship carrier inked a USD 96 bn agreement to acquire up to 160 jets from US manufacturer Boeing, with an option to add 50 more aircraft, and Saudi Arabia’s PIF placed a USD 4.8 bn order for 20 Boeing 737-8 jets for its aviation leasing firm AviLease, with an option for 10 more.

DATA CENTERS-

#1- The two countries will build a 5 GW US-UAE data center complex in Abu Dhabi — set to be the largest outside of the US — to house UAE hyperscalers and large enterprises, according to a Commerce Department statement. The facility will use nuclear, solar, and gas power, and will house a science park to drive AI innovation.

State AI giant G42 will build the complex in partnership with US companies, the statement said, without disclosing their names. However, OpenAI and Oracle are reportedly the leading US companies involved in the project, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

What else we know: Once completed, the facility will span 10 square miles and consume the power equivalent to that generated by five nuclear reactors — positioning it as the largest of any site announced by OpenAI or any of its rivals, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The 5 GW will be distributed across multiple unnamed firms, with Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX reportedly considering participating in the data center project alongside OpenAI and G42, as well as other undisclosed US partners.

ICYMI- The US + KSA underwent a data center round recently: A slew of Saudi Arabian tech players inked agreements with US firms last week, chief among them was a USD 20 bn data centers and AI infrastructure agreement between KSA’s DataVolt and US-based Super Micro Computer Inc (Supermicro). Also, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Oracle expanded their partnership with a SAR 2 bn pact to boost Saudi’s AI-powered cloud infrastructure and sovereign cloud solutions. The Kingdom’s newly launched AI company Humain also finalized a barrage of agreements with Amazon, Nvidia, and AMD for data center developments and microchip imports.

Tags: