Chief executive of OpenAI Sam Altman met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, according to the UAE state news agency. The talks between the pair centered around building stronger cooperation between OpenAI and firms in the Emirates.
According to a report from officials, both men focused on artificial intelligence research and practical applications inside the country. “This cooperation aligns with the UAE’s ambition to establish an integrated AI ecosystem, supporting the country’s development plans and its drive to build a knowledge-based economy,” the UAE President said.
The UAE has been pouring billions of dollars into AI, with the intention of becoming a global player. It is developing one of the world’s largest AI data centers and has announced a new Arabic-language AI model. Officials are also working to use the country’s strong ties with the United States to secure access to AI technology. In May, the UAE and the U.S. signed a deal for the Gulf state to build one of the largest artificial intelligence campuses outside the United States.
Sam Altman meets UAE president to engage on AI projects
The meeting between the UAE president and Altman is tied directly to these ambitions. Officials in the country want to bring OpenAI into the country’s larger AI ecosystem to ensure that investments in data centers and research projects result in real-world applications. The UAE is betting that this will help speed up its economic shift away from oil by boosting technology capacity.
The government noted that it wants not only research partnerships but also the deployment of AI applications across industries within the country. The meeting also took place against the backdrop of a massive funding announcement from Nvidia, the world’s most valuable listed tech company. Last week, Nvidia said it would invest $100 billion into OpenAI to support its large-scale data center build-out, as Cryptopolitan reported.
The size of this investment has raised concerns among investors about the possibility of an AI bubble. Nvidia had already taken part in a $6.6 billion investment round in OpenAI in October 2024. It also holds about 7% of CoreWeave, a firm that provides data center capacity to OpenAI and also buys Nvidia products. That stake was worth about $3 billion at the end of June.
These overlapping relationships make it hard to track where the money flows. Many of Nvidia’s financing agreements are too small individually to be classified as material in filings, but may be significant when added up. Nvidia’s equity stakes also help companies like OpenAI and CoreWeave secure debt for data center projects at lower interest rates. Jay Goldberg, an analyst at Seaport Global Securities, said such deals are like “someone asking their parents to be a co-signer on their mortgage.”
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