Overview
- The build will be delivered through Khazna Data Centers and is slated to start coming online before the end of 2026, strengthening Azure’s sovereign cloud in the country.
- Licenses approved in September authorize shipments equal to 60,400 A100 GPUs, explicitly including Nvidia’s GB300/Blackwell series, under stringent security safeguards.
- Microsoft’s UAE program totals $15.2 billion from 2023 to 2029, with $7.3 billion by end-2025 and a further $7.9 billion planned for 2026 to 2029 across infrastructure and operations.
- The imported accelerators will power access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers and Microsoft’s Copilot services, with cybersecurity and physical controls to keep hardware under Microsoft’s control.
- Investors responded to the approvals and buildout plans, with Nvidia shares rising about 2.2% after the export clearance was reported.