Microsoft said on Thursday it plans to invest more than $10 billion across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait by 2030, including in new cloud and artificial intelligence capacity across the Gulf.
“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,” Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters. The company is pressing ahead with the programme despite the war with Iran and disruptions that have affected digital infrastructure across the region.
The more than $10 billion covers both capital and operating expenditure. Microsoft has not disclosed how the spending will be divided between the four countries or individual projects, citing factors including security.
Cloud and artificial intelligence
Microsoft plans to expand computing capacity in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where governments are already spending billions of dollars on artificial intelligence. Reuters said abundant land and access to relatively cheap energy are among the factors attracting major cloud operators to the Gulf.
The US technology group is working with HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s state-backed AI company, Abu Dhabi-based G42 and Qatar’s QAI. Microsoft invested $1.5 billion for a minority stake in G42 in 2024. Smith said the company does not currently plan to make equity investments in HUMAIN or QAI.
The Kuwaiti government is also among the partners named by Microsoft, alongside existing digital-government programmes in all four countries.
More than $400m for connectivity
Microsoft also plans to invest more than $400 million in subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.
The company cited the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable system, which has landing points in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Such networks carry international data traffic between regional digital infrastructure and major global networks.
Data centres hit during the war
The announcement comes after the war with Iran exposed the vulnerability of some digital infrastructure in the Gulf. Amazon Web Services data centres in Bahrain and the UAE have been affected during the conflict.
Microsoft said it began supporting local partners in the first week of the war, including through digital resilience assessments aimed at protecting critical data and maintaining services.
The company also plans to continue its training programmes across the region. Microsoft has committed to helping more than 4.2 million people in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE develop AI-related skills by 2030.