AI Endgame: United Arab Emirates is building an AI center in Silicon Valley

Newsletter #35

May 25, 2025

https://debbiecoffey.substack.com/p/ai-endgame-united-arab-emirates-is
May 24, 2025

By Debbie Coffey, AI Endgame

I’m up to my eyeballs trying to keep up with the latest AI news. I’m not the only one. AI safety experts are extremely concerned with the rapid, all-encompassing expansion of AI development. Many people worry that nothing can stop it.

Except us. That’s why it’s vitally important that we try to stay informed. So, thanks for sticking with me as we travel this road towards our future.

The big AI companies are like the Kraken monster in Norse mythology, with tentacles extending around the world.

In recent news, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is “setting up shop” in Silicon Valley. The UAE is building their AI center in Sunnyvale, CA.

Stargate

As you may recall, in AI Endgame newsletter #22, I discussed Stargate & foreign ownership of AI infrastructure in the U.S. When President Trump announced the formation of Stargate by OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank, it was noted Stargate would invest an initial $500 billion in AI infrastructure to build new datacenters, to build or expand nuclear energy (to power the datacenters), and for water resources (to run the datacenters).

However, the Stargate plan was vague, and there was only a mere mention of a fourth partner, MGX, that would contribute funding to Stargate. MGX is an Emirati investment fund controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi. [1]

Stargate UAE

Back to recent news, the U.S. and UAE announced they’re partnering to build a massive datacenter in Abu Dhabi. Sam Altman’s OpenAI and United Arab Emirates are building Stargate UAE, expected to be the largest AI datacenter outside the United States. The UAE gets ChatGPT Plus subscriptions for its entire population (it’s the first country to do this). [2]

The bottom line of this deal is this new UAE market, and all the new ChatGPT Plus users, will bring in more money to OpenAI’s coffers.

For every dollar the UAE invests in Stargate UAE and the datacenter project in Abu Dhabi, UAE will invest an additional dollar in U.S. AI infrastructure, including Stargate.

In other words, the UAE will become an “owner” of U.S. AI infrastructure. Is this a big win for us?

We’ll get cloud service in the UAE region, but what will UAE get?

The United Arab Emirates’ goal is to be a world leader in AI, and by building an AI center in Silicon Valley, it can tap into the most concentrated source of cutting-edge AI technology and talent in the U.S (and the world). [3]

But doesn’t the U.S. also want to be the world leader in AI?

What about national security?

The UAE has close ties to China. However, the Trump Administration agreed to sell our most sensitive chip technology to the UAE, in exchange for promises of foreign investment.

U.S.-made chips have already been smuggled into China, so there are concerns that U.S. technology is inadvertently ending up in the hands of foreign actors.

Sen. Chuck Schumer stated, “This deal could very well be dangerous because we have no clarity on how the Saudis and Emiratis will prevent the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government, the Chinese manufacturing establishment from getting their hands on these chips.” [4]

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said “I don’t like the fact that the biggest AI center, research center, is going to be in Dubai.” He added, “…we should be focused on putting the new technology jobs in the United States.” [5]

The UAE’s AI “world model”

World models (also known as world simulators) seem to be the next big thing in AI. Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun said “We need machines that understand the world; [machines] that can remember things, that have intuition, have common sense - things that can reason and plan to the same level as humans.” [6]

This sure sounds like AI superintelligence, the point where we could lose control of AI and risk human extinction. (Meta might “need” this, but we don’t.)

The UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) announced their AI “world model” called PAN, which already simulates self-driving cars on busy roads, drones flying through untried spaces, and robots performing tasks in domestic environments.

Many AI researchers believe that “world models” like PAN will be crucial to building more advanced AI systems. Google’s AI lead, Demis Hassabis, stressed the importance of world modeling to his company’s AI plans.

Again, this is concerning because more “advanced AI systems” will be pushing us closer to AI superintelligence, the point where we could lose control of AI. [7]

Why is the U.S. selling out for the UAE’s money?

Why is the U.S. sacrificing AI infrastructure, and national security, in exchange for UAE’s money? Is this just another gimme for the AI oligarchs?

In my opinion, it is.

Many AI billionaires and their companies are based in the U.S. and could finance AI infrastructure here. But these big tech companies want to expand into more international markets in order to gain new subscriptions and users.

One way the AI oligarchs to do this is by investing in the AI infrastructure of other countries.

But what’s the incentive for other countries to allow them to “own” part of their AI infrastructure? The big AI power players in other countries, including governments, are all doing the same thing.

The AI billionaire bros partner with each other and continue to increase their power and influence. The AI oligarchs are the tentacles of the Kraken that are now enveloping our world.

Find links to all past AI Endgame newsletters HERE.

What you can do:

1) Let your Congressional representatives know that you want AI regulations.

Find out how to contact your Congressional representatives here:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Find out how to contact your Senators here:

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?Class=1

2) Support (and if you can, make donations) to organizations fighting for AI Safety:

Pause AI

https://pauseai.info/

Center for Humane Technology

https://www.humanetech.com/who-we-are