COUNTRIES / APAC + MIDDLE EAST · 20 MARKETS IN SCOPE
Explore a market.
Hover or focus a map marker for a snapshot. Select a country to open its findings, charts and source records.
PHYSICAL FACILITY INVENTORY
Who is building where?
Explore documented data-centre activity across 20 markets. Available facility details include dated sources; an operating label retains the date of its source.
452campus / site groups in research
545research records, including supporting rows
452 research campus / site groups · Inventory snapshot . Source dates vary; coverage is incomplete.
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United Arab Emirates
All lifecycle states
22 research campus / site groups.
33 research records across all lifecycle states in United Arab Emirates, including building / phase observations and unresolved identities. These records are not additional campuses.
Research totals describe NTRY’s documented inventory. They are not a complete market census, fresh operating verification or accepted evidence. Source and identity checks determine which named details can be released.
Facility details are not yet available for this selection. This is a coverage gap, not evidence of no data centres.
Campus / site groups are counted once; supporting building and phase rows do not add campus counts. Named facility details are a subset of this inventory and must not be added to its counts. Planning approval is not construction or operation. Accepted measurements remain separate from facility counts.
Market evidence for UAE
Source-linked measurements and news provide context for the facility inventory. Evidence records do not add sites to its counts.
DC Byte · Global Index Report 2026 · EMEA Future Growth Metro MarketsDC BYTE 2026 EMEA FUTURE-GROWTH RANK · ABU DHABI #7 · CONTEXT ONLY · NOT OPERATING CAPACITY
Abu Dhabi ranks seventh in DC Byte's 2026 EMEA future-growth list as power availability reshapes site selection
Abu Dhabi · Published 27 Jul 2026
This is a proprietary, point-in-time ordinal ranking—not an NTRY score, a capacity value, available headroom, an operating-capacity total, a forecast or a repeated series. It is regional to EMEA and must not be compared with DC Byte's APAC scores or its separate current-market index. Two inputs include under-construction and committed capacity, neither of which is guaranteed to become operational; the report does not publish Abu Dhabi's component values or Growth Potential Score. The ranking does not prove utility availability, delivery timing, demand conversion or causation, and it must not be read as evidence that Abu Dhabi outranks Riyadh overall because the two observations come from different rankings. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.DC Byte source ↗
Microsoft · UAE AI and cloud infrastructureCOMPANY PROJECTION · >US$7.3BN EXPECTED BY END-2025 · 2026–2029 PLAN · NOT CONFIRMED SPEND OR OPERATING CAPACITY
Microsoft expected >$7.3bn invested and spent by end-2025 within its $15.2bn UAE programme
UAE · AI and cloud investment · Published 03 Nov 2025
This is a 3 November 2025 company projection, not audited deployment evidence. The >US$7.3 billion total and >US$4.6 billion AI/cloud data-centre capex component were amounts Microsoft expected to have invested and spent by the end of 2025—neither was confirmed actual spend as of publication. The US$15.2 billion programme total comprises that projected end-2025 amount and the planned 2026–2029 phase; the phase totals and their AI/cloud infrastructure capex components are nested scopes and must not be added as separate commitments. The end-2025 amount also included a US$1.5 billion G42 equity investment and more than US$1.2 billion of local operating expenses and cost of goods sold; the later phase included almost US$2.4 billion of planned local operating expenses and cost of goods sold. Microsoft did not disclose facility-level allocations, MW, power connections, annual deployment cadence, commissioning dates, operating data-centre capacity, IT load, delivered compute, contracted power, available grid supply or site readiness. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Microsoft source ↗
United Arab Emirates electricity system · Published service regionsOFFICIAL REGIONAL ALL-SECTOR HISTORY · 2012–2021 · 2021 COMPARISON · CONTEXT ONLY
Abu Dhabi and Dubai accounted for 79.9% of reported UAE electricity consumption in 2021
UAE · regional electricity demand · Published 24 Aug 2022
This is historical annual all-sector electricity consumption by published service region, not current demand, data-centre load, peak MW, available generation, reserve margin, substation headroom, contracted power or campus-ready supply. The history ends in 2021. Abu Dhabi sector detail changes sharply between 2019 and 2020 while the publisher's all-sector total remains coherent, so NTRY uses the supplied all-sector rows rather than reconstructing totals. Northern Emirates 2021 values exactly repeat 2020 and may be carried forward; no freshness inference is made. Regional service boundaries and methodology continuity are not independently established. Source: Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY 4.0; label normalization, chart selection, share and growth calculations are NTRY modifications. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure / Bayanat source ↗
Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) · Dubai commercial and residential electricity consumptionOFFICIAL DUBAI SECTOR HISTORY · 2019–2021 · TWO SEPARATE SECTORS · CONTEXT ONLY
Dubai's electricity sectors diverged in 2020: commercial use fell 4.8% while residential rose 6.5%
Dubai · DEWA sector history · Published 24 Aug 2022
Historical annual energy only; this workbook ends in 2021 and does not establish current demand. The commercial category does not isolate data centres or contracted cloud workload. Opposite sector changes do not identify a cause, substitution, peak-load shape or spare grid capacity. Sector definitions, service boundaries and methodological continuity are not independently established. Do not join the two sectors into one time series, add national totals or connect these figures to the separate UAE 2024 sector snapshot without reconciliation. Agriculture N/A records, other entities and all-sector/total rows are excluded. Source: Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY 4.0; sector-label trimming, year selection, chart rendering and percentage calculations are NTRY modifications. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure / Bayanat source ↗
UAE electricity consumers · National final-consumer sectorsOFFICIAL NATIONAL SECTOR SNAPSHOT · 2024 · POINT-IN-TIME COMPARISON · CONTEXT ONLY
Commercial and residential users account for 71.7% of UAE electricity consumption in 2024
UAE · national sector mix · Published 21 Sept 2026
Annual electricity consumption is energy, not peak MW, installed capacity, reserve margin or campus-ready power. The source does not isolate data centres or establish their sector classification. National records are for 2024; the workbook's emirate breakdown is for 2023 and is excluded from this comparison. A missing emirate value is unknown, not zero. Shares use only the six reported UAE sector rows; no EtihadWE service-area series is added. Source: Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; label trimming, sorting, share calculations and chart rendering are NTRY modifications. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure / Bayanat source ↗
Etihad Water and Electricity · EtihadWE service-area electricity consumptionOFFICIAL ANNUAL SERVICE-AREA ENERGY · 2020–2025 · SOURCE-REPORTED HISTORY · CONTEXT ONLY
EtihadWE electricity consumption rose 8.8% in 2025—but the service-area trend is not campus-ready power
UAE · EtihadWE service area · Published 16 Apr 2026
This is annual electrical energy used across all sectors within EtihadWE's service area, not a UAE national total, data-centre load, peak MW, installed or operating capacity, reserve margin or available power at a campus. Historical service-boundary and methodological continuity are not independently established. Do not subtract this consumption from EtihadWE own generation to infer a shortage: purchased electricity and network transfers are not reconciled. Values in the chart are rounded to the nearest GWh; source decimals are retained in the evidence record. Source: EtihadWE via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; chart selection, rounding and growth calculations are NTRY modifications. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Etihad Water and Electricity / Bayanat source ↗
Etihad Water and Electricity · EtihadWE own electricity generationOFFICIAL ANNUAL OWN-GENERATION HISTORY · 2020–2025 · SOURCE BREAK UNEXPLAINED · CONTEXT ONLY
EtihadWE reported own generation collapsed after 2021 and reached zero in 2024–2025
UAE · EtihadWE generation fleet · Published 17 Apr 2026
This is EtihadWE-reported generation from its own power plants, not total electricity supplied to its service area, installed or available generation capacity, contracted power, reserve margin, network imports, regional headroom or campus-ready supply. The generation and consumption workbooks cannot be subtracted to infer a deficit because purchases, transfers, losses and boundary continuity are not reconciled. The sharp 2021–2022 break may reflect an operational or reporting change; the source does not explain it. The 2024 workbook says “Jan. 2024” in metadata despite containing a 2024 row, a disclosed timing inconsistency. Source zeros are preserved without imputation. Source: EtihadWE via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; chart selection and percentage calculation are NTRY modifications. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Etihad Water and Electricity / Bayanat source ↗
United Arab Emirates renewable-energy fleet · National renewable electricity generationOFFICIAL ANNUAL RENEWABLE OUTPUT · NATIONAL TOTAL · 2021–2022 · NOT CAMPUS-AVAILABLE POWER
UAE renewable generation grew 11.7% in 2022—slower than installed capacity
United Arab Emirates · Published 11 Oct 2026
These are annual national totals, not a capacity factor, hourly generation profile, curtailment measure, data-centre allocation, contracted clean energy or campus-available power. Technology mix, commissioning dates, resource conditions, outages, curtailment and reporting scope can explain the different growth rates. The GWh and MW figures must not be divided into a site-availability claim or added to operating data-centre capacity. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure source ↗
United Arab Emirates renewable-energy fleet · National utility-scale renewable-energy plantsOFFICIAL ANNUAL INSTALLED-CAPACITY SERIES · NATIONAL RENEWABLE FLEET · ENDS 2022 · NOT DATA-CENTRE-SPECIFIC
UAE renewable capacity expanded about 27-fold by 2022—but national supply is not campus-ready power
United Arab Emirates · Published 11 Oct 2026
This is a historical national utility-scale installed-capacity series ending in 2022, not generation delivered, reserve margin, available grid capacity, data-centre allocation, contracted clean energy, hourly matching, transmission headroom, connection capacity, additionality or operating data-centre capacity. It cannot size a data-centre supply-demand gap or enter operating-capacity totals. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure via KAPSARC Data Portal source ↗
OpenAI separates Stargate UAE's first 200 MW from its planned 1 GW cluster
Abu Dhabi · Published 22 May 2025
This is OpenAI's May 2025 partnership announcement, not evidence that construction, energisation, commissioning, customer occupancy or utilisation has occurred. The 1 GW is the planned cluster scale and the 200 MW is an expected initial tranche, not verified operating capacity. The 2,000-mile reach is described as potential coverage, not measured demand or service availability. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.OpenAI source ↗
UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs · Crosscurrents: Navigating the AI-Water-Energy NexusGOVERNMENT PLANNING FRAMEWORK · NO PROJECT CAPACITY CLAIM
UAE puts water alongside energy in AI-infrastructure planning
United Arab Emirates · Published 07 Oct 2026
This is a government policy and planning report. It provides no site-level water entitlement, energy availability, delivered capacity, project schedule, operating performance or investable market ranking. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs source ↗
DIEZ / VOLT UAE · Dubai Silicon Oasis AI-ready data centresJV ANNOUNCED · TWO PHASES · OPERATING STATUS UNVERIFIED
DIEZ and VOLT set a two-phase Dubai AI-ready data-centre plan
Dubai · Published 23 Apr 2026
The joint-venture announcement does not prove that 29 MW is energised or occupied. The additional 100 MW is committed power, not operating capacity or verified IT load, and delivery dates are undisclosed. Excluded from operating-capacity totals and scores.Government of Dubai Media Office source ↗
Microsoft-G42 UAE Data Centre ExpansionAnnounced · Accepted
UAE undisclosed sites · Evidence 05 Nov 2025
Development pipeline capacity. Microsoft and G42 announced 200 MW of additional UAE data-centre capacity delivered through Khazna, with initial capacity expected online before the end of 2026. It is announced pipeline, not operating capacity or a UAE market total.Microsoft G42 UAE capacity expansion release source ↗
23 other proposals concern policy, demand, grid load, investment or broader market context.
Accepted development measurements · UAE · 1 record
These accepted measurements can describe a campus, phase or wider programme. They are not additional facilities and are not added to the inventory. A site relationship is shown only after its identity is matched.
Microsoft-G42 UAE Data Centre ExpansionAccepted evidence · Announced
Development pipeline capacity · Evidence 05 Nov 2025
Microsoft and G42 announced 200 MW of additional UAE data-centre capacity delivered through Khazna, with initial capacity expected online before the end of 2026. It is announced pipeline, not operating capacity or a UAE market total.Microsoft G42 UAE capacity expansion release source ↗
One physical facility map; lifecycle and evidence review remain separate. Power allocations, MW, capital plans and programme measurements never become extra facility counts.
Contextual research informs diligence; it does not change accepted observations, governed coverage or rankings. Governed views use the returned evidence feed; missing or bounded records are not proof of no market activity.
NTRY LIVEWHAT CHANGED AND WHY IT MATTERSRECENT ARTICLES · SOURCE FACTS & ANALYSIS
FILTER BY THEME, GEOGRAPHY, COMPANY OR EFFECT3 / 12
Showing the latest three items. Source facts remain separate from NTRY analysis; every item includes a caveat. Hover or focus to pause.
POPULATION × DIGITAL REACH · UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
How large is the digital demand backdrop?
Inspect United Arab Emirates population, internet participation and business adoption. Regional comparisons are optional below. These are demand proxies; they do not measure local compute workloads or available data-centre capacity.
United Arab Emirates · 2024 population × internet participation
Horizontal axis: population, logarithmic scale. Vertical axis: individuals using the internet, % of population. Select a point or choose a market below.
United Arab Emirates · relative to the 18-market 2024 panel median0.4× panel median population · +4.5 pp internet participation
Panel medians are 31.2m people and 95.5% internet participation. They are descriptive reference lines—not targets, scores, demand forecasts or investment thresholds.
World Bank WDI / ITU · fixed 2024 comparison · 18 matched economies. Dashed guides are panel medians. Unverified or conflicting cells are omitted, never plotted as zero.
United Arab Emirates · population movement · 2023–2024 · 1 matching midyear series
Market size and population growth answer different questions. Switch between percentage change and people added; select a bar to inspect its source. Market order is alphabetical.
Shared zero line · left: decrease · right: increase · percent change from the 2023 base. Bar lengths use one common scale. Mint: increase · slate: decrease · amber: selected market.
Source: World Bank WDI population estimates, CC BY 4.0; exact source links appear in each profile. NTRY calculation: (2024 − 2023) / 2023 × 100; absolute change is 2024 − 2023. Taiwan’s year-end registered-population series remains separate in its profile. Population change does not establish customer spend, local workloads or causation.
United Arab Emirates · digital participation movement · 2019–2024 · 1 matching series
Compare reported digital-participation change on its own, or place it beside population movement. Select any point or bar to inspect the exact dated history and source.
Horizontal: 2023→2024 population change, %. Vertical: 2019→2024 internet-participation change, percentage points. Same source series within each axis; periods intentionally remain distinct. Amber: selected market.
United Arab Emirates · two contextual movementsPopulation +4.79% · digital participation +0.9 pp
Population uses 2023→2024 midyear estimates; digital participation uses the 2019→2024 internet-use series. Different periods and units remain separate.
Sources: World Bank WDI population estimates and WDI / ITU indicator “Individuals using the Internet (% of population)”, CC BY 4.0; exact source links appear in each profile. NTRY calculations: 2024 population − 2023 population as a percent of the 2023 base; 2024 internet-use value − 2019 value. The relationship view has 1 matched markets. China and Taiwan remain outside it because their retained internet observations use unresolved or different denominators. Survey methods and historical revisions can create apparent movement; neither view measures enterprise adoption, compute demand or causation.
Population11m2024 · 10,986,400 persons
Internet participation100%2024 · individuals, not enterprises
Population movement · 2023 → 2024+502,649 people · +4.79%
10,483,751 → 10,986,400 persons. World Bank country/economy midyear estimates on the displayed source basis.
Population estimates may be modelled and revised; not a census count or measure of local compute demand. Internet-use survey quality, frames and reference periods can differ among reporting economies. Annual population and internet percentages must not be interpreted as enterprise AI adoption, spending, or campus-ready power.
Internet participation movement · 2019 → 2024+0.9 percentage points
99.1% → 100% of population on the displayed World Bank / ITU indicator basis. Historical revisions and survey-method changes remain possible.
Individuals using the internet
Exact dated observations
Metric
Reference period
Percent
Individuals using the internet
2019
99.1%
Individuals using the internet
2020
100%
Individuals using the internet
2021
100%
Individuals using the internet
2022
100%
Individuals using the internet
2023
100%
Individuals using the internet
2024
100%
Source-reported contextual history. Historical revisions and national survey differences remain possible.
Compare United Arab Emirates with other markets · ChatGPT use and estimated AI adoption
Optional regional comparison. These charts intentionally include other countries; the selected profile remains United Arab Emirates.
PROVIDER-PUBLISHED USAGE · OPENAI SIGNALS V2.0
How much ChatGPT conversation is work-related?
June 2026 · 18/20 markets. Compare the work-related share of consumer ChatGPT messages, then select a market to inspect its monthly history. The percentage describes messages within each market; it is not a business-adoption rate or provider market share.
Common 0–100% scale · alphabetical order · mint: published share · amber: selected market · unknown: no released observation. Select a row to update all demand evidence.
United Arab Emirates · June 2026 · work-related message share38.1%
24/24 monthly observations in this release. Automated publisher classification; messages, not users or businesses.
Exact monthly observations and gaps
Month (UTC)
Work-related share
Published fraction
Jul 2024
65.3%
0.653
Aug 2024
59.1%
0.591
Sep 2024
52.5%
0.525
Oct 2024
51.8%
0.518
Nov 2024
48.7%
0.487
Dec 2024
46.3%
0.463
Jan 2025
43.5%
0.435
Feb 2025
42.0%
0.420
Mar 2025
40.8%
0.408
Apr 2025
41.1%
0.411
May 2025
39.1%
0.391
Jun 2025
37.2%
0.372
Jul 2025
38.6%
0.386
Aug 2025
39.0%
0.390
Sep 2025
39.1%
0.391
Oct 2025
41.7%
0.417
Nov 2025
38.7%
0.387
Dec 2025
39.9%
0.399
Jan 2026
37.1%
0.371
Feb 2026
37.5%
0.375
Mar 2026
33.7%
0.337
Apr 2026
39.8%
0.398
May 2026
36.2%
0.362
Jun 2026
38.1%
0.381
United Arab Emirates · Q2 2026 · population-adjusted ChatGPT message-use rank#6 of 147
Lower rank number means higher consumer ChatGPT message use relative to 2023 population within the publisher's country panel.
Exact quarterly population-adjusted ranks
Quarter
Published rank
Population basis
Jan 2025
#14
2023 World Bank population
Apr 2025
#11
2023 World Bank population
Jul 2025
#8
2023 World Bank population
Oct 2025
#10
2023 World Bank population
Jan 2026
#10
2023 World Bank population
Apr 2026
#6
2023 World Bank population
Decision use: separate use intensity from work orientation.
Work-related share shows the composition of messages within a market; the ordinal rank shows population-adjusted consumer ChatGPT message use across countries. Together they can prioritise deeper demand diligence, but neither measures adoption, users, absolute message volume, paid enterprise demand, provider market share, local workload hosting or compute demand.
United Arab Emirates · Q2 2026 · two-publisher demand context#6 of 147 · 73.3% estimated AI use
OpenAI population-adjusted consumer message-use rank paired with Microsoft's estimated share of people ages 15–64 using any generative-AI product.
Dashed lines are the descriptive medians of the 17 matched markets: rank #59 and 27.9% estimated AI use. They are not targets or thresholds.
Decision use: test whether two independent demand signals point in the same direction.
The relationship can flag markets for deeper diligence when population-adjusted ChatGPT message use and the broader Microsoft generative-AI-use estimate diverge or align. Different products, populations, methods and denominators make this contextual triangulation—not provider market share, adoption proof, a composite score, causal evidence, compute demand or an allocation rule.
Claude and Gemini: comparable country-by-month measures are not included in this view. No cross-provider share or composite adoption score is calculated.
Source, population, precision and reuse
Consumer ChatGPT messages from Free, Go, Plus and Pro accounts with declared age at least 18; excludes Enterprise and Codex, deleted accounts and users who opt out of training.
300,000 messages sampled globally per month; day-weighted, automatically classified work-relatedness; differential privacy and rounding to 3 decimals. Country is associated with request. Rank uses 2023 World Bank population. Values are publisher estimates; granular country slices have greater sampling variance. Changes may reflect user composition, classification and restatements. This is external contextual history, with no semantic acceptance or NTRY inference.
Chatterji, Cunningham, Deming, Hitzig, Johnston, Richmond, Ong, Shan and Wadman, OpenAI Signals v2.0 · CC BY 4.0. NTRY modifications: selected country rows, conversion of fractions to percentages, monthly chart, quarterly ordinal-rank chart, cross-publisher descriptive scatter and missing-value display. Snapshot checked 12 October 2026; data ends June 2026. The public downloads are verified source material; this contextual panel does not create accepted observations or NTRY inference.
ESTABLISHED CROSS-MARKET ADOPTION PROXY · MICROSOFT AI DIFFUSION
How widely is generative AI being used?
Q2 2026 · 18/20 NTRY markets · 72 dated estimates. Microsoft estimates the share of people ages 15–64 who used a generative AI product. This is a broad usage measure—not ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini market share.
Ranked Q2 2026 estimate · common 0–100% scale · mint: published estimate · amber: selected market · unknown: no economy estimate in this release.
Population scale × generative-AI use
Horizontal: 2024 population, logarithmic scale. Vertical: Microsoft Q2 2026 AI Diffusion estimate. Dashed guides are the 18-market panel medians—not targets, scores or allocation thresholds. Select a point to inspect its evidence.
United Arab Emirates · two separate contextual observations11m people · 73.3% estimated AI use
0.3× the panel median population · +45.5 percentage points versus the panel median AI-use estimate.
The axes intentionally retain different reference periods and definitions. Their position is descriptive context only: it does not estimate addressable users, enterprise demand, compute load, revenue, hosting location, power need or causation.
United Arab Emirates · Q2 2026 · ages 15–64 estimated usage73.3%
Decision use: identify where broad consumer generative-AI use may deepen demand diligence.
Use this as a comparable adoption proxy beside population, digital reach and official enterprise surveys. It can prioritize questions about paid business demand, local workload placement and connectivity. It cannot size compute, power, revenue, capacity headroom or hyperscaler allocation.
The population×AI scatter and ranked bars are used instead of a radar chart. They preserve actual magnitudes, ordering and unknown values without normalizing unrelated evidence into a composite score.
Source, method, revisions and limits
Estimated share of people ages 15–64 who used a generative AI product during the period. Microsoft aggregates and anonymizes consumer AI telemetry, then adjusts estimates for operating-system and device-market share, internet penetration and population.
Microsoft describes this as an estimate from aggregated, anonymized consumer telemetry. Results can move with product coverage, calibration, internet access and historical revisions. The measure is usage—not skill, productivity, business adoption, spending, provider share, compute demand, hosting location or infrastructure capacity.
NTRY modifications: exact selection of the 20-market universe, labels aligned to NTRY market names, percentage parsing, ranking and selected-market trend. Snapshot checked 2026-10-12. The public dataset is verified source material; this contextual panel does not create accepted observations or NTRY inference.
Population is country/economy context, not a utility service territory. World Bank WDI population values are midyear estimates; Taiwan uses separately sourced year-end registered population and is excluded from the shared scatter. Internet use is the share of individuals who used the internet. World Bank / ITU attribution, CC BY 4.0. NTRY modifications: 2024 selection, rounding, chart rendering and within-series percentage-point changes and 2023–2024 population differences. These sources provide context only; this panel does not create accepted observations or an investment conclusion.
MARKET EVIDENCE
Findings to examine
Source-linked context and NTRY interpretation. Open each finding to inspect its limits.
01United Arab Emirates · CONTEXT
UAE renewable generation grew 11.7% in 2022—slower than installed capacity
WHY IT MATTERS · NTRY INTERPRETATION
Value the UAE renewable build-out, but underwrite an AI campus on contracted delivered energy and hourly attribution—not installed megawatts alone.
What to verify and evidence limitsWhat to verify next
Monthly generation by technology, commissioning dates, curtailment, availability, contracted facility allocation and hourly matching.
Project stage and scope
OFFICIAL ANNUAL RENEWABLE OUTPUT · NATIONAL TOTAL · 2021–2022 · NOT CAMPUS-AVAILABLE POWER
These are annual national totals, not a capacity factor, hourly generation profile, curtailment measure, data-centre allocation, contracted clean energy or campus-available power. Technology mix, commissioning dates, resource conditions, outages, curtailment and reporting scope can explain the different growth rates. The GWh and MW figures must not be divided into a site-availability claim or added to operating data-centre capacity.
UAE renewable capacity expanded about 27-fold by 2022—but national supply is not campus-ready power
WHY IT MATTERS · NTRY INTERPRETATION
Keep the UAE clean-energy option strong; release campus capital only against contracted allocation, network delivery and hourly matching.
What to verify and evidence limitsWhat to verify next
2023–2026 capacity and generation, site-level contracted clean-energy share, transmission headroom, connection dates and hourly attribution.
Project stage and scope
OFFICIAL ANNUAL INSTALLED-CAPACITY SERIES · NATIONAL RENEWABLE FLEET · ENDS 2022 · NOT DATA-CENTRE-SPECIFIC
This is a historical national utility-scale installed-capacity series ending in 2022, not generation delivered, reserve margin, available grid capacity, data-centre allocation, contracted clean energy, hourly matching, transmission headroom, connection capacity, additionality or operating data-centre capacity. It cannot size a data-centre supply-demand gap or enter operating-capacity totals.
Commercial and residential users account for 71.7% of UAE electricity consumption in 2024
WHY IT MATTERS · NTRY INTERPRETATION
For 2027–2031 UAE build-out diligence, request data-centre-resolved load and local coincident peak evidence alongside firm connection commitments. Do not convert commercial annual energy into data-centre MW or use this composition to change allocations automatically.
What to verify and evidence limitsWhat to verify next
Official data-centre sector classification and annual load, emirate-level same-year sector records, local coincident peak demand, and named-site substation headroom and firm connection dates.
Project stage and scope
OFFICIAL NATIONAL SECTOR SNAPSHOT · 2024 · POINT-IN-TIME COMPARISON · CONTEXT ONLY
Annual electricity consumption is energy, not peak MW, installed capacity, reserve margin or campus-ready power. The source does not isolate data centres or establish their sector classification. National records are for 2024; the workbook's emirate breakdown is for 2023 and is excluded from this comparison. A missing emirate value is unknown, not zero. Shares use only the six reported UAE sector rows; no EtihadWE service-area series is added. Source: Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; label trimming, sorting, share calculations and chart rendering are NTRY modifications.
Only accepted observations with matching measurement definitions, reporting boundaries and units are shown. Individual records appear once there is enough comparable history to chart.
Historical periods only; the feed check date is not a new observation. Axis ticks are rounded; exact plotted values and source evidence are listed above. Missing periods have no points or connecting lines. The point-to-point change is descriptive and does not establish a trend or causal conclusion. Earlier accepted records may be outside the current history response.
Historical periods only; the feed check date is not a new observation. Axis ticks are rounded; exact plotted values and source evidence are listed above. Missing periods have no points or connecting lines. The point-to-point change is descriptive and does not establish a trend or causal conclusion. Earlier accepted records may be outside the current history response.
CITED RESEARCH UPDATES
Explore the evidence
Source-reported developments, with project stage and caveats. These updates do not change accepted measurements, capacity totals or rankings.
10 decision charts · scoped evidence visuals in United Arab Emirates · scroll horizontally to explore, or use the controls
EVIDENCE IDENTITY CHECK1 duplicate source view collapsed across equivalent source, effective period and series values. Counts below use unique evidence identities.
DECISION CHARTSOfficial, evidence-bound market visuals are surfaced first. Use Evidence shape to separate repeated history from point-in-time and project-stage comparisons.
Manual browsing · reduced motion
1 of 10
United Arab Emirates · United Arab EmiratesPublished Effective
UAE renewable generation grew 11.7% in 2022—slower than installed capacity
OFFICIAL ANNUAL RENEWABLE OUTPUT · NATIONAL TOTAL · 2021–2022 · NOT CAMPUS-AVAILABLE POWER
The Ministry reports renewable electricity generation rising from 11,537 GWh in 2021 to 12,892 GWh in 2022, an 11.7% increase. Over the same period, installed renewable capacity rose from 2,997.7 MW to 3,599.7 MW, or 20.1%—so nameplate capacity expanded faster than annual output.
2021 generation
11,537 GWh
2022 generation
12,892 GWh
Generation change
+11.7%
Installed-capacity change
+20.1%
UAE renewable electricity generationGWh
202111,537 GWh
202212,892 GWh
Historical series · repeated dated points · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: These are annual national totals, not a capacity factor, hourly generation profile, curtailment measure, data-centre allocation, contracted clean energy or campus-available power. Technology mix, commissioning dates, resource conditions, outages, curtailment and reporting scope can explain the different growth rates. The GWh and MW figures must not be divided into a site-availability claim or added to operating data-centre capacity.
United Arab Emirates · United Arab EmiratesPublished Effective
UAE renewable capacity expanded about 27-fold by 2022—but national supply is not campus-ready power
OFFICIAL ANNUAL INSTALLED-CAPACITY SERIES · NATIONAL RENEWABLE FLEET · ENDS 2022 · NOT DATA-CENTRE-SPECIFIC
The official UAE series reports total renewable-energy installed capacity rising from 133.1 MW in 2016 to 3,599.673 MW in 2022—about 27.0 times the 2016 base, or a 2,604.5% increase. Selected intermediate points were 597.4 MW in 2018 and 1,931.5 MW in 2019.
2016 installed capacity
133.1 MW
2022 installed capacity
3,599.673 MW
Six-year multiple
27.0×
Six-year change
+2,604.5%
UAE total renewable-energy installed capacity — selected official pointsMW
2016133.1 MW
2018597.4 MW
20191,931.5 MW
20223,599.673 MW
Historical series · repeated dated points · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: This is a historical national utility-scale installed-capacity series ending in 2022, not generation delivered, reserve margin, available grid capacity, data-centre allocation, contracted clean energy, hourly matching, transmission headroom, connection capacity, additionality or operating data-centre capacity. It cannot size a data-centre supply-demand gap or enter operating-capacity totals.
United Arab Emirates · UAE · national sector mixPublished Effective
Commercial and residential users account for 71.7% of UAE electricity consumption in 2024
OFFICIAL NATIONAL SECTOR SNAPSHOT · 2024 · POINT-IN-TIME COMPARISON · CONTEXT ONLY
Six official national sector records sum to 155,279.18 GWh in 2024. Commercial use is the largest reported category at 40.6%, followed by residential at 31.1% and industry at 17.4%. The chart compares sectors within the same national year; it is a demand-composition snapshot, not a trend.
Reported sector total
155.28 TWh
Commercial share
40.6%
Residential share
31.1%
Combined share
71.7%
UAE electricity consumption by final-consumer sector — 2024GWh · national annual energy · sector comparison, not a trend
Commercial63,083.93 GWh · 40.6%
Residential48,244.08 GWh · 31.1%
Industry26,998.50 GWh · 17.4%
Government11,067.99 GWh · 7.1%
Agriculture4,616.23 GWh · 3.0%
Other1,268.45 GWh · 0.8%
Point-in-time comparison · not a trend · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: Annual electricity consumption is energy, not peak MW, installed capacity, reserve margin or campus-ready power. The source does not isolate data centres or establish their sector classification. National records are for 2024; the workbook's emirate breakdown is for 2023 and is excluded from this comparison. A missing emirate value is unknown, not zero. Shares use only the six reported UAE sector rows; no EtihadWE service-area series is added. Source: Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; label trimming, sorting, share calculations and chart rendering are NTRY modifications.
DIEZ and VOLT set a two-phase Dubai AI-ready data-centre plan
JV ANNOUNCED · TWO PHASES · OPERATING STATUS UNVERIFIED
The official release describes a project of up to 60,000 square metres, with 29 MW of stated first-phase power followed by 100 MW of additional committed power.
Stated first-phase power
29 MW
Additional committed power
100 MW
Dubai Silicon Oasis disclosed power stages — status-separatedMW · stated first-phase and additional committed power; not operating
First phase29 MW stated
Additional commitment100 MW committed
Stage comparison · statuses are not additive · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: The joint-venture announcement does not prove that 29 MW is energised or occupied. The additional 100 MW is committed power, not operating capacity or verified IT load, and delivery dates are undisclosed.
United Arab Emirates · UAE · EtihadWE generation fleetPublished Effective
EtihadWE reported own generation collapsed after 2021 and reached zero in 2024–2025
OFFICIAL ANNUAL OWN-GENERATION HISTORY · 2020–2025 · SOURCE BREAK UNEXPLAINED · CONTEXT ONLY
EtihadWE's official annual workbooks report own electricity generation of 439.0515 GWh in 2020 and 505.2375 GWh in 2021, followed by 3.333 GWh in 2022, 0.2174 GWh in 2023 and zero in 2024 and 2025. Separately, EtihadWE's service-area consumption workbook reports consumption rising to 20,475 GWh in 2025. The divergence makes the source of served electricity a material diligence gap; the files do not reconcile purchases, transfers or network supply.
2021 own generation
505.2375 GWh
2022 own generation
3.333 GWh
2021 → 2022
−99.3%
2024–2025
0 GWh · source reported
EtihadWE reported own electricity generation — annual historyGWh · own power-plant generation
2020439.0515 GWh
2021505.2375 GWh
20223.333 GWh
20230.2174 GWh
20240 GWh
20250 GWh
Historical series · repeated dated points · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: This is EtihadWE-reported generation from its own power plants, not total electricity supplied to its service area, installed or available generation capacity, contracted power, reserve margin, network imports, regional headroom or campus-ready supply. The generation and consumption workbooks cannot be subtracted to infer a deficit because purchases, transfers, losses and boundary continuity are not reconciled. The sharp 2021–2022 break may reflect an operational or reporting change; the source does not explain it. The 2024 workbook says “Jan. 2024” in metadata despite containing a 2024 row, a disclosed timing inconsistency. Source zeros are preserved without imputation. Source: EtihadWE via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; chart selection and percentage calculation are NTRY modifications.
United Arab Emirates · UAE · EtihadWE service areaPublished Effective
EtihadWE electricity consumption rose 8.8% in 2025—but the service-area trend is not campus-ready power
OFFICIAL ANNUAL SERVICE-AREA ENERGY · 2020–2025 · SOURCE-REPORTED HISTORY · CONTEXT ONLY
The official 2025 workbook reports EtihadWE service-area electricity consumption of 20,475 GWh, up from 18,820 GWh in 2024 and 14,409.24 GWh in 2020. The file contains annual observations from 2010 to 2025; the chart shows its latest six years, with all sectors kept within the publisher's service-area scope.
Historical series · repeated dated points · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: This is annual electrical energy used across all sectors within EtihadWE's service area, not a UAE national total, data-centre load, peak MW, installed or operating capacity, reserve margin or available power at a campus. Historical service-boundary and methodological continuity are not independently established. Do not subtract this consumption from EtihadWE own generation to infer a shortage: purchased electricity and network transfers are not reconciled. Values in the chart are rounded to the nearest GWh; source decimals are retained in the evidence record. Source: EtihadWE via Bayanat, CC BY-SA 4.0; chart selection, rounding and growth calculations are NTRY modifications.
United Arab Emirates · UAE · AI and cloud investmentPublished Effective
Microsoft expected >$7.3bn invested and spent by end-2025 within its $15.2bn UAE programme
COMPANY PROJECTION · >US$7.3BN EXPECTED BY END-2025 · 2026–2029 PLAN · NOT CONFIRMED SPEND OR OPERATING CAPACITY
Microsoft's 3 November 2025 disclosure projected that, by the end of 2025, it would have invested and spent just over US$7.3 billion in the UAE. That year-end projection included more than US$4.6 billion of capital expenditure on advanced AI and cloud data centres; neither amount was a confirmation of actual spend completed on the publication date. Microsoft separately planned to spend more than US$7.9 billion during 2026–2029, including more than US$5.5 billion of AI/cloud infrastructure capex, within a US$15.2 billion 2023–2029 programme.
2023–2029 planned programme
US$15.2bn
Expected investment by end-2025
>US$7.3bn
Expected AI/cloud DC capex by end-2025
>US$4.6bn
Planned 2026–2029 AI/cloud capex
>US$5.5bn
Microsoft UAE investment programme — projected phase amountsUS$bn · company projection, not confirmed spend
Expected by end-2025>US$7.3bn
Planned 2026–2029>US$7.9bn
Stage comparison · statuses are not additive · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: This is a 3 November 2025 company projection, not audited deployment evidence. The >US$7.3 billion total and >US$4.6 billion AI/cloud data-centre capex component were amounts Microsoft expected to have invested and spent by the end of 2025—neither was confirmed actual spend as of publication. The US$15.2 billion programme total comprises that projected end-2025 amount and the planned 2026–2029 phase; the phase totals and their AI/cloud infrastructure capex components are nested scopes and must not be added as separate commitments. The end-2025 amount also included a US$1.5 billion G42 equity investment and more than US$1.2 billion of local operating expenses and cost of goods sold; the later phase included almost US$2.4 billion of planned local operating expenses and cost of goods sold. Microsoft did not disclose facility-level allocations, MW, power connections, annual deployment cadence, commissioning dates, operating data-centre capacity, IT load, delivered compute, contracted power, available grid supply or site readiness.
United Arab Emirates · Abu DhabiPublished Effective
OpenAI separates Stargate UAE's first 200 MW from its planned 1 GW cluster
ANNOUNCED 1 GW CLUSTER · FIRST 200 MW EXPECTED 2026 · DELIVERY NOT VERIFIED
OpenAI announced a planned 1 GW Stargate UAE compute cluster in Abu Dhabi, with an initial 200 MW expected to go live in 2026. The announcement positions the cluster as the first international Stargate deployment and says its potential service radius could reach up to half the world's population.
Planned cluster
1 GW
Initial tranche
200 MW
Expected go-live
2026
Potential reach
2,000-mile radius
Stargate UAE disclosed capacity stagesMW · announced / expected, not operating
Planned cluster1,000 MW
Initial tranche expected 2026200 MW
Stage comparison · statuses are not additive · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: This is OpenAI's May 2025 partnership announcement, not evidence that construction, energisation, commissioning, customer occupancy or utilisation has occurred. The 1 GW is the planned cluster scale and the 200 MW is an expected initial tranche, not verified operating capacity. The 2,000-mile reach is described as potential coverage, not measured demand or service availability.
United Arab Emirates · UAE · regional electricity demandPublished Effective
Abu Dhabi and Dubai accounted for 79.9% of reported UAE electricity consumption in 2021
OFFICIAL REGIONAL ALL-SECTOR HISTORY · 2012–2021 · 2021 COMPARISON · CONTEXT ONLY
The official regional dataset reports 126,488.92 GWh of UAE electricity consumption in 2021. Abu Dhabi contributed 56,134.80 GWh and Dubai 44,993 GWh, together representing 79.9% of the four published regional totals. The national total rose 44.1% from 87,789.82 GWh in 2012, but the history ends in 2021 and does not isolate data-centre load.
2021 national total
126.49 TWh
Abu Dhabi + Dubai share
79.9%
2012 → 2021 national change
+44.1%
History cutoff
2021
UAE electricity consumption by published service region — 2021GWh · annual all-sector energy
Abu Dhabi56,134.80 GWh
Dubai44,993 GWh
Northern Emirates13,986.10 GWh
Sharjah11,375.02 GWh
Point-in-time comparison · not a trend · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: This is historical annual all-sector electricity consumption by published service region, not current demand, data-centre load, peak MW, available generation, reserve margin, substation headroom, contracted power or campus-ready supply. The history ends in 2021. Abu Dhabi sector detail changes sharply between 2019 and 2020 while the publisher's all-sector total remains coherent, so NTRY uses the supplied all-sector rows rather than reconstructing totals. Northern Emirates 2021 values exactly repeat 2020 and may be carried forward; no freshness inference is made. Regional service boundaries and methodology continuity are not independently established. Source: Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY 4.0; label normalization, chart selection, share and growth calculations are NTRY modifications.
United Arab Emirates · Dubai · DEWA sector historyPublished Effective
Dubai's electricity sectors diverged in 2020: commercial use fell 4.8% while residential rose 6.5%
OFFICIAL DUBAI SECTOR HISTORY · 2019–2021 · TWO SEPARATE SECTORS · CONTEXT ONLY
The official workbook reports Dubai/DEWA commercial consumption of 22,223 GWh in 2019, 21,160 GWh in 2020 and 24,205 GWh in 2021. Residential consumption rose from 13,144 to 13,992 to 14,853 GWh over the same years. Commercial use rebounded 14.4% in 2021. The chart shows the latest three years in two separate sector histories; all 20 source observations for 2012–2021 are retained in the evidence record.
Commercial 2019 → 2020
−4.8%
Residential 2019 → 2020
+6.5%
Commercial 2020 → 2021
+14.4%
History ends
2021 · historical context
Dubai / DEWA commercial and residential electricity use — 2019–2021GWh · annual energy · two separate sector histories
Commercial 201922,223 GWh
Residential 201913,144 GWh
Commercial 202021,160 GWh
Residential 202013,992 GWh
Commercial 202124,205 GWh
Residential 202114,853 GWh
Point-in-time comparison · not a trend · context only · excluded from governed totals
Caveat: Historical annual energy only; this workbook ends in 2021 and does not establish current demand. The commercial category does not isolate data centres or contracted cloud workload. Opposite sector changes do not identify a cause, substitution, peak-load shape or spare grid capacity. Sector definitions, service boundaries and methodological continuity are not independently established. Do not join the two sectors into one time series, add national totals or connect these figures to the separate UAE 2024 sector snapshot without reconciliation. Agriculture N/A records, other entities and all-sector/total rows are excluded. Source: Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure via Bayanat, CC BY 4.0; sector-label trimming, year selection, chart rendering and percentage calculations are NTRY modifications.
Where demand meets delivery. And where it does not.
Explore the evidence on each side of the market. Values retain their original scope and status; NTRY only calculates a gap when the records are genuinely comparable.
Accepted delivery proofAccepted observed demandFuture pipeline / capital not current supplySource-dated context excluded from totals
DELIVERY PROOF0 accepted records
Only accepted operating, commissioned or available capacity can light this lane. Contracted power remains context until delivery is evidenced.
RESEARCHNo decision-eligible pair yet.
DELIVERYDEMANDPAIR
Forecasts, contracted power and pending proposals can direct research, but cannot establish an investable supply-demand gap.
NUMERICAL GAP WITHHELDDEMAND PROOF0 accepted records
Accepted workload, utilisation, pre-lease or observed-load evidence only. Forecasts, floors and declared maxima remain context.
MARKET DECISION PULSE · UAE
Power is stated and committed—not yet delivered.
0/2comparable proof inputs
COMMITTED POWER × DELIVERY STATUSDubai Silicon Oasis power plan
Source-derived context · excluded from governed totals
Phase 1 stated29 MW
Stated first phase
Additional committed100 MW
Committed power
0MW · status separated
SOURCE RECORDS BY STATED EVIDENCE STATE12 cited context records
Record count—not MW or a conversion rate
0Reported operating
0Launch milestone
1In delivery
0Allocated / contracted
1Announced / planned
10Policy / adoption context
DECISION EFFECTCollect accepted delivery proof and observed or contracted demand.
Contextual demand or supply signals are visible, but cannot replace accepted observed evidence. Opportunity is a conditional path, not spare megawatts: release capital only as power, demand and delivery milestones become comparable.
SUPPLY EVIDENCEMISSING
No cited supply measurement is available for this market.
DEMAND EVIDENCEMISSING
No cited workload-demand, utilisation or observed-load measurement is available for this market.
Governed evidence anchors the SWOT. Where evidence is still thin, NTRY states a conditional hypothesis, what would falsify it and which dated indicators must be collected next.
UAE1 SWOT point · 24 accepted evidence recordsEvidence feed checked 27 Oct 2026
Evidence cards are governed; SWOT placement is a transparent rule-based interpretation. Working hypotheses identify questions for further evidence and do not become facts, market scores, allocation recommendations, trends or Signals.
Potential strengths
What existing advantages are reported?
NTRY WORKING HYPOTHESIS
Existing-ecosystem advantage
If the UAE can demonstrate available operating capacity, firm power and network diversity, its existing ecosystem may reduce time to deployment.
What would falsify it: Named capacity is unavailable, energisation is delayed, or comparable peer markets can deliver sooner.
Next dated indicator: Available MW, dated energisation, utilisation or pre-lease evidence, and independent network paths.
Sparse evidence may be masking local delivery constraints in the UAE; grid access, permitting, cooling or construction could be more binding than the current SWOT shows.
What would falsify it: Dated official evidence confirms timely permits, firm power, sufficient cooling resources and on-time delivery.
Next dated indicator: Connection lead time, permit status, water or cooling entitlement, and construction milestones.
Priority evidence gaps: Grid access · Land and permitting · Cooling and water
Potential opportunities
What future openings should we investigate?
ACCEPTED OBSERVATION · RULE-BASED READING
Development pipeline capacity
200 MW · Microsoft-G42 UAE Data Centre Expansion
A reported development pipeline identifies expansion to investigate. Planned or under-construction capacity is not operating supply or proven demand.
Source, scope and what to verify
Source statement: 200 MW expansion expected to start coming online before the end of 2026
Caveat: Microsoft and G42 announced 200 MW of additional UAE data-centre capacity delivered through Khazna, with initial capacity expected online before the end of 2026. It is announced pipeline, not operating capacity or a UAE market total.
What would change this assessment: Check permits, financing, power delivery, construction milestones and anchor customers.
Power economics, connection timing, regulation or delivery risk could erode the UAE's relative attractiveness before 2031—even if headline capacity grows.
What would falsify it: Comparable evidence shows stable delivered-power cost, secured connections, predictable rules and on-time delivery.
Next dated indicator: Delivered power cost, grid delay, policy change, equipment lead time and resilience incidents.
Priority evidence gaps: Grid access · Regulation · Construction
THE UAE EVALUATION SYNOPSIS
Read the UAE build-out synopsis.
A two-page, source-bound synopsis of UAE energy demand context and capital intent, with three reviewed findings and the next diligence receipts.