UAE knowledge centre market to exceed $3.3bn by 2030

The UAE knowledge centre market is increasing quickly, reaching $1.26bn in 2024 and is projected to surpass $3.3bn by 2030 amid surging AI adoption.

The UAE is experiencing a serious growth in knowledge centre and cloud infrastructure tasks, powered by accelerated authorities digital transformation and widespread adoption of synthetic intelligence (AI) applied sciences.

This progress is reinforcing the nation’s place as a number one regional hub for cloud infrastructure and a most popular vacation spot for international digital investments.

UAE knowledge centre market

In accordance with a Analysis and Markets report, the UAE’s knowledge centre market is increasing quickly, valued at $1.26bn in 2024 and projected to surpass $3.3bn by 2030.

The nation already maintains a big portfolio of operational and upcoming knowledge centres with mixed capacities reaching a number of hundred megawatts.

Investments within the sector lengthen past worldwide operators to incorporate sovereign funds, native builders, regional buyers, and funding corporations, highlighting the strategic significance of digital infrastructure as a nationwide financial asset supporting sustainable progress.

Executives from main UAE and worldwide corporations informed the Emirates Information Company that the surge in funding displays the rising significance of information sovereignty, enabling organisations to function and handle their knowledge and AI options securely inside nationwide borders.

du will increase infrastructure funding

Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du, mentioned the corporate continues to speculate closely in digital infrastructure and nationwide knowledge centres to strengthen the UAE’s digital economic system and improve knowledge sovereignty.

Discussing du’s deliberate telecommunications and infrastructure investments for 2025, Al Hassawi mentioned expenditure reached AED545m ($148m) this yr, in contrast with AED442m ($120m) in 2024.

Capital depth rose to 14 per cent from 12.3 per cent within the second quarter of final yr, reflecting du’s elevated give attention to knowledge centres, 5G community improvement, and nationwide sovereign-cloud platforms.

He famous that these investments reinforce the UAE’s place as a regional digital hub, accelerating AI adoption, attracting international digital funding, and supporting key authorities and private-sector initiatives by managed cloud companies that enhance operational sustainability and cut back carbon emissions.

Alibaba Cloud expands in Dubai

Eric Wan, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Worldwide and Normal Supervisor for the Center East, Turkey, and Center Asia at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, mentioned the UAE’s open financial and regulatory surroundings makes it best for attracting main investments in cloud infrastructure and AI.

He added that the UAE and the broader area are among the many fastest-growing international markets in each cloud companies and AI.

The corporate views the UAE as a key international hub, which led to the opening of a second knowledge centre in Dubai as a part of Alibaba Cloud’s large-scale digital-infrastructure enlargement.

Oracle digital transformation

Yassine El Bakiouli, Vice President of Software Gross sales, Gulf Business at Oracle, mentioned the corporate is increasing its community of personal knowledge centres and cloud companies within the UAE to empower private and non-private entities to attain fast and safe digital transformation.

Ahmad Shakoura, Group Vice President – Rising Markets (META) at Cloudera, mentioned the UAE’s ambitions to guide the digital economic system are constructed on an important however typically unseen basis — a community of superior cloud knowledge centres which have advanced from easy storage services into dynamic engines powering AI adoption.

He defined that AI can not thrive with out superior knowledge infrastructure, which permits entry to organisational knowledge from a number of sources — together with private and non-private clouds, on-premises techniques, and edge-computing environments.

He famous that hybrid cloud infrastructures have grow to be one of many UAE’s most strategic enablers for growing these capabilities.

Shakoura added that cloud knowledge centres now act as key drivers of nationwide progress, enabling the safe processing of huge knowledge volumes and producing predictive insights that enhance effectivity and foster innovation.

This strong infrastructure, he mentioned, empowers the UAE to speed up financial progress and strengthen its international competitiveness as a number one hub for digital transformation and technological innovation.

Digital infrastructure

Business analysts say the UAE’s knowledge centre enlargement aligns with the nation’s technique to construct a knowledge-based, AI-driven economic system.

With rising funding from each private and non-private sectors, the nation is establishing itself because the digital spine of the Center East, enabling next-generation companies, innovation, and sustainable financial diversification.