The UAE receives a $15.2 billion investment commitment from Microsoft, and the U.S. approves the export of NVIDIA GB300 GPUs

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Microsoft (MSFT.US) announced on Monday that it will invest $15.2 billion in the UAE from 2023 to 2029 to drive its business growth in the region. The tech giant also stated that it has obtained permission to export advanced artificial intelligence (AI) GPUs to the UAE, including products from NVIDIA (NVDA.US).

Following the announcement, Microsoft saw a slight increase in pre-market trading, while NVIDIA's stock rose by 2%.

This $15.2 billion investment includes: a $1.5 billion equity investment in UAE company G42; over $4.6 billion for capital expenditures to build advanced AI and cloud data centers in the UAE; and over $1.2 billion for local operating expenses.

Brad Smith, Microsoft's Vice Chairman and President, noted in a blog post that starting next year until 2029, Microsoft will add over $7.9 billion in expenditures in the UAE, specifically including: over $5.5 billion for capital expenditures on AI and cloud infrastructure; the remaining $2.4 billion will be used for local operating expenses and cost of goods sold.

In the blog, Smith wrote, "Sometimes, the tech industry seems to be caught in a 'slogan competition,' with everyone racing to announce larger and more astonishing figures. But we firmly believe in being pragmatic while moving quickly and maintaining transparency about investment details. We also want to indicate that we are confident these investments will benefit our shareholders, the people of the UAE, and the relationship between the two countries."

Smith also disclosed specific details about the export license: the license was approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce in September, allowing Microsoft to ship products equivalent to 60,400 A100 chips to the UAE, as well as some NVIDIA GB300 GPUs.

"While these chips are powerful and in significant quantity, what’s more important is that they will have a positive impact on the UAE," Smith added. "We will leverage these GPUs to enable users to access advanced AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers, and Microsoft itself;

We will support AI applications developed by various local and international providers (including our Copilot application); at the same time, we will collaborate with G42 to provide support for public and private sector institutions across various industries in the UAE, as well as consumers nationwide."

Previously, Microsoft had received approval from the Biden administration to deploy products equivalent to 21,500 NVIDIA A100 GPUs in the UAE, which include A100, H100, and H200 chips