By Nicolas Thomas
Publication Date: 2026-09-24 07:32:00
Microsoft plans to invest over $10bn by 2030 in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, mainly in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The group aims to stay the course and even step up its projects, despite the war with Iran, while making digital resilience a central pillar of its regional growth strategy.
Gulf countries are investing heavily in AI to diversify their economies and become global technology hubs, drawing in particular on relatively cheap energy and ample land availability. The conflict has nonetheless heightened risks to digital infrastructure, including attacks on AWS data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Microsoft is therefore helping its partners prepare for crises and protect critical data.
The group also plans more than $400m in investment in undersea and terrestrial connectivity infrastructure in the Middle East by 2030. Microsoft is also continuing its partnerships…
