Data Center World Makes Middle East Debut as Gulf AI Infrastructure Build-Out Accelerates

The inaugural Abu Dhabi edition will bring together hyperscalers, government, data center operators and infrastructure companies as AI drives new demand for compute, power and cooling across the Gulf.

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The Middle East’s AI ambitions are increasingly about infrastructure. Deploying AI at scale requires more than just software. Countries need data centers, power cooling, network capacity and increasingly sovereign control over where compute and data reside.

These ambitions are putting Gulf at the center of digital investments. Data Center World will now hold its first Middle East edition in Abu Dhabi on Nov 17 and 18 bringing together the companies, policymakers and infrastructure providers responsible for building that capacity.

Data Center World, the premier global event for data centre IT infrastructure and innovation for more than four decades, will hold its first Middle East edition in the UAE capital, bringing together the people who build, power, finance and regulate the region's AI infrastructure.

Data Center World Middle East will make its regional debut at Dusit Thani Abu Dhabi, as accelerating AI adoption and cloud demand drive major investment in data center infrastructure across the Gulf.

Organized by inD, an Informa and Dubai World Trade Centre company, the event will include representatives from the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and UAE Ministry of Investment alongside regional operators Khazna Data Centers, Core42 and Tabreed. AWS, Google, Oracle and NVIDIA are also among the companies participating.

The timing reflects the speed at which regional infrastructure requirements are changing. Omdia estimates that Middle East added 1GW of new IT capacity in 2025, with regional data center IT capacity growing at close to 25% annually.

Eng. Mozah Alnuaimi, Chief AI Officer, UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, a speaker on the opening panel, said: "Every megawatt saved in cooling is a megawatt of compute the grid does not have to build for. In our climate, water efficiency and energy efficiency are the same discipline: liquid cooling, closed-loop systems, and clear intensity requirements. Through the Global Cooling Pledge and the Ministry's planning tools, we are treating data centres as a national efficiency opportunity, not only a load, so growth in AI strengthens the system rather than strains it."

The UAE is at the centre of that growth aiming to double the digital economy's contribution to GDP, from 9.7% to 19.4%, within a decade. In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Government Enablement's AED 13 billion digital strategy targets full migration to sovereign cloud on the way to an AI-native government by 2027, supported by a Unified Government Data Centre. Khazna, meanwhile, is building G42's 1GW Stargate UAE cluster with partners including OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank.

As the Gulf competes to build larger AI clusters and sovereign compute capacity, the challenge is moving beyond simply adding megawatts. Power availability, cooling efficiency and ability to integrate AI-scale loads into national grids are becoming strategic constraints that need proper planning and solutions.

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