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UAE AI Development Faces Multiple Bottlenecks, Executives Say
Executives involved in Abu Dhabi's AI initiatives reported that access to data centers, power, expertise and chips are all constraining progress at once. An executive from an Abu Dhabi AI conglomerate said the Iran conflict is deterring skilled workers from relocating to the UAE. Costs for large data center builds have roughly doubled in the past five months amid global competition for resources.
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While GPUs have drawn attention across Gulf states, other constraints are also delaying projects. These include access to suitable data centers, sufficient power supplies, and the specialized knowledge required to deploy systems effectively.
"Access to the right data centers, enough power, the right knowledge and expertise to actually deploy, and then GPUs. It’s all of it at once," one executive told Semafor. Separately, an executive from an Abu Dhabi AI conglomerate stated that the Iran conflict is deterring skilled workers from coming to the UAE.
California-based DDN sells equipment to the conglomerate and partners with a unit of International Holding Company and Nvidia to deploy AI systems in the country. Such AI deployments are already visible in public infrastructure. Irrigation lines in public areas use AI sensors to maintain grass coverage, according to one executive.
Those deployments are set to become more expensive. Global competition for resources is increasing costs in the opposite direction from initial expectations at the start of the latest technology expansion, when many anticipated that wider adoption would reduce prices.
For large data center construction, costs that used to total $100 million five months ago now run between $200 million and $250 million.
