Khazna builds data centres to plug UAE capacity shortage

• Two facilities in Abu Dhabi
• Supporting AI growth
• Expanding cloud capacity

State-controlled Khazna, the UAE’s largest data centre operator, has started building two new facilities to support the federation’s digital and artificial intelligence (AI) growth as the Gulf state grapples with a capacity shortage. 

Originally owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, Khazna was in 2022 transferred to the emirate’s G42 and e&, the national telecommunications company previously known as Etisalat.

The two owners – Etisalat is also state-controlled – merged their respective data centre businesses to create the UAE’s largest data centre operator.

The two new centres will be built in Abu Dhabi’s Mafraq and Masdar City, joining the company’s under-construction facility in Ajman, Khazna said in a statement. 

“The UAE economy is transforming rapidly as industries across the board continue to embed AI into more critical processes,” said Hassan Alnaqbi, Khazna. 

AUH4 (Mafraq) and AUH8 (Masdar) will substantially expand the region’s cloud hosting capacity and provide a combined 60 megawatts (MW) of capacity. 

The two centres are due for completion as early as August next year. 

The QAJ1 facility in Ajman – one of the seven members of the UAE federation – will have a 100MW capacity, offering the high-density compute infrastructure required for AI-powered applications.

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Data centre projects in the UAE are struggling to secure financing in their early stages despite an urgent need for more facilities to meet soaring demand, AGBI reported last year

Last month, UAE technology investment company MGX and US private equity company Silver Lake took a minority stake in Khazna.

MGX was launched in March last year by founding partners Mubadala and G42, the emirate’s artificial intelligence (AI) investment arm.

MGX is chaired by UAE national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Group 42 Holding Ltd, doing business as G42, is an Abu Dhabi emirate owned artificial intelligence development company, founded in 2018. 

The organisation is focused on AI development across various industries including government, healthcare, finance, oil and gas, aviation and hospitality.