By Federico Maccioni
DUBAI, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Microsoft is planning to invest more than $10 billion across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait between now and 2030, including in cloud and AI infrastructure, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
The US tech giant is making digital resilience a key part of its strategy for the region as the Iran war rumbles on.
Microsoft's investment reflects both its "ongoing build-out of infrastructure and also the expansion of operations in the region,"
Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters.
Gulf countries are pouring billions into AI as they strive to become global hubs to help diversify their economies away from oil and gas, betting that land abundance and access to cheap energy will lure hyperscalers, including Microsoft.
However, challenges remain in areas including access to advanced chips and the uncertainty brought by the war, including attacks on data centres such as Amazon cloud unit AWS's facilities in Bahrain and the UAE.
"We're sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we're in fact adding to them ... It's an aggressive spending schedule," said Smith.
He said Microsoft had supported local partners during the conflict, including with digital resilience assessments, even in the first week of the conflict, which began on February 28.
DIGITAL RESILIENCE
Microsoft is now working to help the Gulf countries in areas such as readiness and critical data protection as part of a digital resilience initiative.
It could not provide a breakdown of the planned investment by country or specific project, Smith said, citing factors including security.
While the UAE has been largely spared attacks since May, several other Gulf countries have continued to face threats.
Microsoft also plans to invest more than $400 million in subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.
It is also strengthening its partnership with national AI companies, including Abu Dhabi's G42, in which Microsoft invested $1.5 billion for a minority stake in 2024, giving the US firm a board seat currently filled by Smith.
Microsoft is working with Saudi Arabia's Humain and Qatar's Qai "in selected areas that are priorities for them," he said, noting that it does not plan capital investments in the firms.
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni; Editing by Alexander Smith)
