Qatar joins arms with Brookfield for a USD 20 bn AI infrastructure JV: Qatar Investment Authority’s new AI firm Qai and Canada-based investment management firm Brookfield are setting up a USD 20 bn joint venture (JV) with Canadian to develop AI infrastructure, according to a statement. The agreement would see the pair contribute capital and operating expertise to develop AI infrastructure in Qatar and other select markets, with the goal of supporting Qatar’s ambition to become a hub for AI infrastructure and services in the region.

Brookfield’s going big on AI: The move is part of a larger push by Brookfield to invest up to USD 100 bn into AI infrastructure globally through the Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund (BAIIF). The fund — launched in November — is starting with a USD 10 bn target, and has reportedly already secured at least USD 5 bn of funds from its own assets, as well as from other partners including the Kuwait Investment Authority and US tech companies.

The regional AI race is on: The big ticket JV from Qatar comes months after Saudi and the UAE announced a flurry of hyperscaler investments to develop AI infrastructure at home and abroad. Here’s a rundown:

  • PIF-backed Humain and AMD will invest up to USD 10 bn over five years to deploy AI infrastructure in Saudi and the US;
  • Humain launched a JV with AMD and Cisco to build data centers in the Middle East, with an initial 1 GW capacity planned in Saudi;
  • Humain also inked a long-term partnership with Australia’s AirTrunk, backed by Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to invest USD 3 bn investment in data centers acrossthe Kingdom;
  • Humain and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will jointly invest over USD 5 bn to establish an AI Zone in the Kingdom;
  • Humain will also build a 500 MW data center in Saudi in collaboration with Elon Musk’s xAI;
  • Humain and Nvidia will jointly develop 500 MW AI data centers over five years;
  • There is also a busy UAE-US pipeline anchored by a UAE commitment to invest USD 1.4 tn in US AI infrastructure over 10 years;
  • ADQ partnered with American energy-focused investment firm Energy Capital Partners to invest USD 25 bn in powering data centers, particularly in the US;
  • MGX joined Microsoft and BlackRock to launch a USD 30 bn global AI infrastructure fund;
  • UAE and the US are partnering on Stargate UAE, the first deployment of the US’s wider USD 500 bn Stargate infrastructure program, with a 5 GW AI data center cluster in Abu Dhabi;
  • UAE’s Du is building an AED 2 bn hyperscale data center in the UAE for Microsoft;
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