Trump administration announces $20 billion data center construction commitment with Dubai developer, marking major Middle East infrastructure investment.

At a news conference on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump announced that Dubai-based luxury property developer DAMAC plans to invest $20 billion to build datacenters in the United States. After introducing DAMAC chairman Hussain Sajwani, Trump stated, "I'm thrilled to announce today that DAMAC will be investing at least $20 billion over a very short period of time in the United States." He explained that the investment will support massive new datacenters across the Midwest and Sun Belt area to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence. Sajwani noted that DAMAC has developed 45,000 luxury units with another 45,000 planned in 20 countries and already operates datacenters in 10 countries. The first phase of the project includes datacenters in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana, with investors committing $1 billion or more eligible for expedited environmental reviews.

According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), there are more than 5,000 datacenters in the US, a number expected to increase by nine percent annually through 2030. US datacenters consumed more than four percent of the country's electricity generation in 2022, with projections reaching as much as nine percent by 2030. The environmental impact of this expansion is already evident: Google's datacenter emissions have risen 48 percent from 2019 and 13 percent from 2023, largely due to the intensive computing required for artificial intelligence. The International Energy Agency estimates that global datacenter electricity demand will double by 2026, while a Goldman Sachs April 2024 analysis foresees global datacenter power usage rising from 1.8x to 3.4x by 2030. The 2024 Electric Power Research Institute whitepaper notes that while AI applications currently use only 10 to 20 percent of datacenter electricity, that percentage is growing rapidly. AI search queries have been estimated to consume ten times as much energy as traditional search queries.

OpenAI's response to the NTIA's solicitation emphasized the economic potential of datacenter expansion. Benjamin Schwartz, head of infrastructure partnerships and policy at OpenAI, stated that constructing and operating a single 5GW datacenter could create or support about 40,000 jobs and contribute between $17 billion and $20 billion to a state's GDP. He acknowledged that negative impacts such as energy consumption and water utilization will require datacenter adaptation and modernization, but insisted the environmental impact "can be mitigated by clean, renewable energy, effective resource management, increased investment, and offset programs."

However, labor and environmental groups expressed significant concerns about the expansion. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice submitted an NTIA comment claiming that Amazon, the largest datacenter operator, is misleading the public about its commitment to renewable energy. The group asserted that "despite claims that the company has reached 100 percent renewable energy, the reality on the ground is that its datacenters are driving up demand for fossil fuels," noting that Amazon only gets 22 percent renewable energy from local utilities in regions where it actually operates datacenters and is investing in datacenter expansion in locations heavily dependent on oil, gas, and coal such as Northern Virginia and Saudi Arabia. The National Parks Conservation Association also raised concerns, noting that across Virginia, the exploding datacenter industry is causing numerous environmental problems by converting thousands of acres of green space to industrial usage. Additionally, the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana challenged claims about the economic benefits allegedly following from datacenter construction.