OpenAI have announced Stargate UAE, the first international deployment of its AI infrastructure platform and inaugural partnership under OpenAI for Countries, a new global initiative helping governments build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the US government. The agreement includes partners G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank, developed in close coordination with the US government.
The partnership includes dual investments featuring a 1GW Stargate UAE cluster in Abu Dhabi with 200MW expected to go live in 2026, and UAE investment into US Stargate infrastructure building on the US-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership announced during President Trump's visit last week. The initiative builds on the unprecedented American AI infrastructure investment announced in January when OpenAI launched Stargate, reinforcing OpenAI's commitment to strengthening US infrastructure while helping allies gain transformative AI access responsibly and securely.
The partnership follows the United Arab Emirates' commitment earlier this year to invest $1.4 trillion in the United States, supporting job creation, driving economic growth and helping America maintain technological leadership. Under the agreement, the UAE becomes the first country worldwide to enable ChatGPT nationwide, giving people across the country access to OpenAI technology.
Stargate UAE has potential to provide AI infrastructure and compute capacity within a 2,000-mile radius, reaching up to half the world's population. The new partnership will support UAE leveraging OpenAI tools across critical sectors including government, energy, healthcare, education and transportation to accelerate innovation and economic growth while creating lasting benefits for its people.
OpenAI anticipates this as the first of many OpenAI for Countries collaborations, already engaging with other countries interested in building their own Stargates. In the initial phase, OpenAI aims to pursue 10 partnerships across key countries and regions, laying foundation for a globally distributed, democratically powered AI network.
Starting next week, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon will kick off an OpenAI for Countries roadshow across Asia Pacific, meeting with governments and potential private-sector partners to discuss infrastructure building opportunities and AI service delivery to communities.
Organisations across UAE critical sectors can access frontier-scale AI infrastructure supporting government, energy, healthcare, education and transportation transformation. The nationwide ChatGPT deployment enables comprehensive enterprise AI adoption while the 2,000-mile radius infrastructure capacity supports regional business operations across multiple markets.
OpenAI's sovereign AI capability initiative creates new market opportunities for enterprise deployment across allied nations while strengthening US technological leadership. The UAE partnership model demonstrates scalable international expansion framework for other governments seeking AI infrastructure development. Organisations can leverage coordinated US-UAE investment structure for enhanced AI access and regional infrastructure capabilities. The Asia Pacific roadshow indicates accelerated global expansion supporting enterprise AI adoption across key international markets.