When US President Donald Trump announced that the giant Stargate artificial intelligence venture would be coming to the UAE, data center company Kazuna was already preparing to become the backbone.
The shift to support AI and the extra speed of implementation required will mark a massive scale from the origins of Kazuna's cloud computing and provide AI as a product in the UAE and beyond, CEO Hassan Arnaqvi said. Newsweek In an interview in the UAE.
“It's completely changed, completely changed. They need up to six months now. And I think my biggest challenge is developing Stargate at a record time,” said Alnaqbi.
Kazuna, which is mostly owned by the Abu Dhabi-based G42 holding company, grew from a 28-megawatt company to a half-gigawatt (500 megawatt) company in 2021, providing 5-gigawatt (5,000 megawatts) to meet Stargate demand, with data centers measuring power.
“I think data centers have only become sexy after AI became the norm,” he said. “It's part of the new intelligence grid because it requires energy, and of course AI, infrastructure, GPU, etc., but with no backbone, nothing happens without the foundation layer.”
Stargate United Arab Emirates will be operated by Openai and Oracle in collaborations that include Japan's SoftBank Group, NVIDIA Cisco, Japan's SoftBank Group and NVIDIA after Trump lifts restrictions on chip exports to the United Arab Emirates.
It is already one of the most connected societies in the world and takes pride in the smooth delivery of digital services. Not only will there be a minister dedicated to AI, but the national artificial intelligence system will officially become the Cabinet's advisory committee as of next year.
Kazuna
It's global
As the hosting itself, Kazuna aims to be the foundation of AI that operates far beyond the UAE itself, working with other countries to help build the necessary infrastructure. There are already projects in France, Italy and Türkiye.
“Let's face it. I don't think the UAE needs 5 gigawatt worth of GPU intelligence. Perhaps you need to say half of the gigawatts, for example.
“If they don't have access to energy, if they can't access the GPU, it becomes a service and the long-term vision we have is that AI becomes useful like electricity.”
The long-term goal is industrialized countries in the global southern that lack the infrastructure level of the United Arab Emirates. Kenya and Egypt are already among those considered strong prospects.
But closer to the home is our larger neighbor, Saudi Arabia.
“For us, Saudi Arabia is a very strategic market. Not only is it bigger than the UAE in the consumer industry in all respects, but it's also a poorly serviced market, with the whole sector becoming digital and now working actively in AI and taking a leading position,” he said.
“We believe it complements the government there in terms of posting performance and helping to build that infrastructure.”
Given that cooling is one of the biggest challenges in operating a data center, and even more so for AI, one of the hottest countries in the world may not be considered the ideal place to build it. Temperatures average close to 100 degrees in summer, even though they are much more comfortable in winter.
At the same time, the United Arab Emirates aims to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, as nuclear and solar become more important power sources currently produced by natural gas.
Khazna was leading the innovations to design efficient data centers and cooling systems, Alnaqbi said. Despite challenging environmental conditions, Kazuna's power usage (PUE) was already on par with European data centres, Alnaqbi said.
“We're also moving from air-cooled solutions to water-based cooling solutions,” he said. “By using liquids for liquid cooling, you can save up to 70% of your energy. What's more, the water used for cooling also treats sewage rather than the easy-to-drink water.”
The expanding AI capabilities themselves will feed back to improving electricity usage, Alnaqbi said.
“I'm 100% sure not all businesses and not all industries are making the most of their potential,” he said. “I can help you optimize it. This is the foundational layer of the new digital economy.”
Kazuna
