Silicon Sands: Can Trillions Turn Oil States Into AI Empires?
If building AI supremacy were just about money, the Middle East would already be running OpenAI, and maybe Google too. But trillion-dollar ambition still needs something cash can’t buy.
The Gulf isn’t investing in AI, it’s launching a full-scale economic reinvention. Between the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, over $2 trillion has been pledged to rewrite the region’s destiny beyond oil, with megadeals spanning Nvidia chips, AWS zones, and quantum computing.
But while the world marvels at the cheque sizes, insiders quietly ask: can all this spending actually deliver?
Saudi Arabia’s $600B bet includes 18,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips and 500MW of AI factories. The UAE leads in early delivery, piloting Falcon LLMs, AI copilots, and its AI71 platform across ministries.
Qatar, with quieter intensity, focuses its $1.2T on quantum breakthroughs and aerospace dominance. Yet talent pipelines, governance gaps, and execution bottlenecks remain the biggest barriers. PowerPoint isn’t progress.
- 65% of Gulf firms plan to boost AI budgets
- AWS, AMD, and Oracle deals exceed $80B
- The UAE’s 5GW AI campus may rival global leaders
This isn’t just copy-paste innovation. Gulf countries are crafting their own AI models, infused with regional values. That’s bold, but the real question is whether they can scale vision into velocity without importing the playbook.
When capital flows faster than capacity, who wins: the builder with vision or the one with wisdom? Can the Gulf create not just AI power, but AI identity?
Read the full article on Rest of World.
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