Gulf pours billions into water security to boost AI and industry ambitions
Gulf countries are keen to grow their industrial base and are pouring hundreds of billions into data centres and AI infrastructure to write the next chapter of their new-age economies. However, none of that is possible without the very basic resource: water. The UAE, the Arab world's second-largest economy , is leading the race for AI investment. The capital, Abu Dhabi, is building Stargate UAE,…
Gulf countries are investing billions to bolster their industrial base and AI sector, with the UAE taking the lead in AI investments. Abu Dhabi is constructing a 1 gigawatt AI supercomputing and data centre project, known as Stargate UAE, which is expected to cost over $30 billion. The UAE allocated over Dh543 billion ($147.9 billion) to AI-related investments in 2024-2025, with major firms like Microsoft and KKR making substantial investments.
Water is crucial for the UAE's push to expand its industrial base and lead the AI and data centre race. Data centres require massive amounts of water for cooling, with a typical data centre consuming 300,000 gallons daily, and large data centres using up to 5 million gallons daily, equivalent to the demands of a small town. The UAE is actively pursuing desalination plants to meet its growing water demand, with the director general for regulatory affairs at Abu Dhabi's Department of Energy, Abdulaziz Alobaidli, stating that desalination is a reliable source of potable water.
The UAE's water supply comes from both the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, providing resilience against potential threats.
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