Chip designer NVIDIA has said that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are leading a global race to build sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure, as the Gulf’s data centre capacity and investment appetite reach record highs.
“The appetite here is unmatched,” said Marc Domenech, Regional Director of Enterprise for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, in an interview with Arabian Business at GITEX Global in Dubai. “We are seeing real projects, not just announcements. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading the region, and both are investing heavily in sovereign AI, data sovereignty, and world-class infrastructure.”
Domenech said data centre readiness has become a central focus for NVIDIA, with the region’s total capacity expected to surpass 200 megawatts next year, supported by the company’s latest Blackwell GPUs and liquid-cooling technology.
“When I first arrived seven years ago, data centres here were running on two or three kilowatts per rack, mostly CPUs. Today, that has completely changed,” he said. “The Gulf has caught up fast, and it is now one of the best-prepared regions globally for GPU-based computing.”
NVIDIA fuels Middle East AI infrastructure
The company’s largest regional collaborations include Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII), where NVIDIA has launched the Middle East’s first joint AI and robotics research lab, and Core42, which operates an AI cloud platform built on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing systems. It also works with Saudi Aramco on quantum-computing research and with partners such as Deloitte, Tabby, and Gigabyte’s Giga Computing to scale AI infrastructure across industries.
Domenech said NVIDIA’s strategy in the region is to build long-term capability rather than pursue short-term sales. “We do not sell directly. We go through partners and invest in the ecosystem. That is what creates sustainable growth,” he said.
He added that governments in the Gulf are now moving from “AI exploration to AI deployment,” with sovereign data policies enabling them to manage and develop national AI systems independently.
“Sovereign AI is about ensuring countries can develop and manage their own capabilities,” he said. “It is no longer just about buying technology; it is about building it locally.”
The UAE and Saudi Arabia remain NVIDIA’s two largest markets in the region, followed by South Africa, Qatar and Turkey.
“The opportunity here is massive,” Domenech said. “What we are seeing in the Gulf today is not just local progress. These countries are now playing a global role in the AI race.”
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