{"id":3963,"date":"2026-01-22T15:12:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2026-01-22T15:12:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:12:57","slug":"weekly-news-blast-22nd-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/weekly-news-blast-22nd-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly News Blast – 22nd January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Welcome to the GDCA Weekly News Blast! Check out the latest industry news from the GCC region below. Have any Middle East data centres news you\u2019d like to share? Email yours to imogen@gulfdca.com<\/a> with NEWS<\/strong> in the subject line.<\/div>\n
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Industry News<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

UAE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

G42: advanced AI chip shipments to UAE expected \u2018\u2019within months\u2019\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

G42 CEO Peng Xiao has said the UAE expects its first shipments of advanced AI semiconductors within months, enabling the first 200MW of a planned 1GW Stargate cluster to come online, with a targeted ramp of a further 200-500MW per quarter as the programme scales toward 5GW over the coming years. The deliveries are expected to be primarily Nvidia systems, alongside chips from AMD and Cerebras, secured under US export licenses that required robust security assurances around end-use and restricted access. The approvals, granted in late November 2025, allow the UAE\u2019s designated \u2018\u2019AI champion\u2019\u2019 (G42) to purchase up to 35,000 Nvidia GB300 systems (or equivalent), and sit within a broader wave of UAE-US AI infrastructure cooperation, including the 10 sq.m UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi led by G42 alongside US hyperscalers. The momentum also builds on Microsoft\u2019s deepening partnership with G42 and Khazna, including a 200MW UAE expansion announcement and a commitment to invest a further $7.9Bn in-country between 2026-2029 (taking total investment to $15.2Bn)\u2026Read more <\/a><\/p>\n

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Qatar<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ooredoo\u2019s Syntys acquires to new data centres in Qatar <\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Ooredoo\u2019s data centre subsidiary, Syntys (formerly Mena Digital Hub), has expanded its Qatar footprint through the acquisition of Q Data QFZ LLC, a Qatar-based operator with 5MW live capacity and a further 7.5MW under development. The deal transfers ownership of to Tier-III certified, carrier-neutral facilities located in the Qatar Free Zones, with the assets acquired from Doha Venture Capital (the venture arm of the Qatar Free Zones Authority), though financial terms were not disclosed. Ooredoo said the acquisition supports its strategic focus on critical digital infrastructure and enabling sovereign AI and cloud services, while Syntys\u2019 leadership positioned the facilities as revenue-generating, hyperscale-ready capacity that strengthens its ability to serve global cloud and AI customers. Following the transaction, Syntys\u2019 live IT capacity in Qatar is now reported at 26MW, and the company reiterated its broader target to exceed 120MW of installed capacity across MENA by 2030\u2026.Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Saudi Infra and Humain announce up to $1.2Bn for AI data centre expansion<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s National Infrastructure Fund (Infra) and Humain, the Kingdom\u2019s AI company, have announced a financing agreement of up to $1.2Bn to support the build-out of AI and digital infrastructure, including indicative terms to develop up to 250MW of AI data centre capacity for Humain\u2019s customers. Announced this week, the agreement sits within Saudi\u2019s broader push to accelerate AI adoption and diversify the economy beyond hydrocarbons. Humain, established last year and wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), is positioning itself as a national AI champion, citing agreements already secured with partners including xAI and AirTrunk, and targeting around 6GW of data centre capacity by 2034. The parties also agreed to explore the creation of a jointly anchored AI data centre investment platform, intended to crowd in local and international institutional capital to support Humain\u2019s growth strategy\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Middle East<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Middle East sovereign funds in early talks on major OpenAI financing<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly been meeting Middle East investors \u2013 including state-backed funds in Abu Dhabi \u2013 as the company explores a new fundraising round that could approach $50Bn, at an indicative valuation of $750Bn – $830Bn, though discussions remain at an early stage and the final raise could change. The talks build on Abu Dhabi\u2019s growing exposure to OpenAI via MGX, which participated in OpenAI\u2019s financing and acquired shares in a $6.6Bn secondary sale that valued the company at $500Bn in October. OpenAI has also held discussions with other major backers including Saudi Arabia\u2019s PIF and Reliance Industries. Separately, the UAE is emerging as a strategic anchor for OpenAI\u2019s infrastructure ambitions, with the country selected as the first international site for its Stargate data infrastructure initiative \u2013 a planned up to 5GW compute cluster to be developed with G42 and partners including Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank \u2013 alongside broader UAE-US investment commitments\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Welcome to the GDCA Weekly News Blast! Check out the latest industry news from the GCC region below. Have any Middle East data centres news you\u2019d like to share? Email yours to imogen@gulfdca.com with NEWS in the subject line. Industry News UAE G42: advanced AI chip shipments to UAE expected \u2018\u2019within months\u2019\u2019 G42 CEO Peng<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-news-blast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3972,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/3972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}