The widening U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran has introduced a new layer of uncertainty for a region that has been marketing itself as an emerging global center for technology and artificial intelligence. Governments across the Middle East have pursued aggressive strategies to attract foreign capital and build indigenous technology ecosystems, focusing on AI, semiconductors and cloud infrastructure.
Against that backdrop, several of the largest global technology firms have outlined multibillion-dollar investment programs in the Gulf. Those commitments include direct spending on cloud regions and data-center capacity, equity stakes in local AI firms and collaborative projects intended to create sovereign AI capabilities.
Microsoft
Microsoft has pledged to invest $15.2 billion in the United Arab Emirates between 2023 and 2029. The company reports that it has already deployed $7.3 billion toward that total. That sum includes a $1.5 billion equity stake in sovereign AI firm G42 and more than $4.6 billion specifically directed at AI and cloud data-center capacity. Microsoft has also outlined a spending profile showing that from 2026 through 2029 it plans to invest more than $7.9 billion as part of the broader $15.2 billion commitment.
Amazon.com / Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services has committed to invest more than $5.3 billion to establish a new data-center region in Saudi Arabia by 2026. The AWS plan includes training programs aimed at developing local cloud expertise and is intended to provide businesses and developers inside the kingdom with access to AWS’s full portfolio of cloud and AI services.
Alphabet / Google Cloud
Google Cloud, together with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has agreed to invest $10 billion to build and operate a global AI hub in the kingdom. The initiative was launched with local tech firm Humain and was first announced in 2024. The project is described as a large-scale effort to create an AI-focused operational center in Saudi Arabia.
Oracle and Nvidia
Oracle has committed $1.5 billion to expand cloud infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. That investment includes the creation of a new public cloud region in Riyadh and increased capacity at the company’s existing site in Jeddah, under an agreement with the communications ministry. Separately, Oracle and Nvidia said in late 2025 that they were deepening their partnership to support sovereign AI projects. That collaboration includes work with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement to develop secure, AI-first government systems.
The scale and scope of these deals underline the region’s appeal to major technology companies seeking to extend cloud, AI and data-center footprints. They also make these infrastructure projects more visible to geopolitical risk, given the current escalation of military activity in the region.
Observers and market participants tracking capital flows into data centers, cloud services and sovereign AI initiatives will likely be monitoring how security developments affect timelines, local talent development programs and operational risk for the facilities being built.