7 hours ago
Last Updated:May 23, 2025, 18:24 IST
OpenAI’s mega UAE data center plan marks a major step in its global AI expansion push, but the deal has sparked security concerns in Washington.
News18
In a global first, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will provide free access to ChatGPT Plus for all citizens and residents, as part of a sweeping AI partnership with OpenAI, Axios reported this week. The deal is part of ‘Stargate UAE’ which is a massive data center that will become the world’s largest AI supercomputing cluster once completed.
The UAE is set to become the first country where every citizen and resident will receive free access to ChatGPT Plus, OpenAI said, as part of a sweeping AI partnership announced on Thursday. The premium version of the chatbot normally costs $20 a month.
The announcement was made as OpenAI unveiled plans to build a massive AI supercomputing complex in the UAE, in collaboration with Abu Dhabi-based firm G42.
Stargate UAE is part of OpenAI’s new “OpenAI for Countries" initiative, aimed at helping governments co-develop AI infrastructure tailored to national priorities.
According to a separate report by the New Yorkworld Times, the facility will be part of a joint venture between OpenAI and several global tech firms, including Oracle, Nvidia, SoftBank, Cisco and G42. The first of several planned data centers is expected to go live by next year.
It also reported that G42 is expected to invest in the construction of similar OpenAI data centers in the United States. For every dollar invested in the UAE, the firm and its partners will reportedly put in an equivalent amount into U.S.-based infrastructure. While OpenAI has not disclosed the overall cost, the scale of the project suggests investments in the tens of billions of dollars in each country.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has spent the past year pitching the need for large-scale data centers around the world to support the company’s next-generation AI ambitions. The new UAE deal suggests his “Stargate" vision may finally be taking off.
This development also ties into a separate agreement announced last week between the US and the UAE to build a massive AI campus in Abu Dhabi. The facility, expected to run on 5 gigawatts of electricity, which is enough to power an entire US state like Minnesota, will be the largest AI project of its kind outside America.
The Middle East AI push has divided opinion in Washington. Key figures in the Trump administration, including White House AI advisor David Sacks, have backed the UAE deal, hoping to steer Gulf countries toward US-made AI tech over Chinese alternatives. But others in the US government remain wary, arguing that such partnerships could pose security risks and potentially create an AI rival to America in the region.
“What happened to ‘America First’? Why don’t we put that center in Pennsylvania or in Ohio?" Representative Ro Khanna, California Democrat, said during an appearance on US broadcaster ABC on Sunday.
Altman called those critics “naive" in a social media post.
“This was an extremely smart thing for you all to do and i’m sorry naive people are giving you grief," Sam Altman said in a tweet, after Sacks posted on X on how people criticised the US-Saudi and US-UAE AI deals.
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Location :Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
First Published:News tech This Will Be The First Country To Offer Free ChatGPT Plus Access Under Major OpenAI Tie-Up
