President-elect Donald Trump revealed a major foreign investment into the United States economy Tuesday, Jan. 7, in an effort to keep up with the fast-moving advancements of artificial intelligence. Trump introduced Emirati businessman Hussain Sajwani, the founder of DAMAC Properties, announcing the company is investing $20 billion to build data centers for AI and cloud storage across the U.S.
“We’re very, very excited now with his leadership and his open strategy and policy to encourage businesses to come to the U.S. For the last four years we’ve been waiting for this moment,” Sajwani said at a news conference with Trump.
Sajwani’s pledge is the latest in foreign business leaders promising to invest in the U.S. as a result of Trump’s election victory.
Last month, the Japanese CEO of Softbank, Masayoshi Son said he will invest $100 billion in the U.S. creating 100,000 over the course of Trump’s second term.
Sajwani said he may eventually double the $20 billion investment as big tech companies race to set up data centers, which are essential for powering AI applications including OpenAI’s ChatCPT and Google’s Gemini.
The challenge is that they require a massive amount of power to operate nonstop. Many companies are now striving to keep their facilities going using primarily clean energy including solar and wind power and developing more nuclear power.
Several companies are also working to implement advanced cooling systems that don’t drain as much power.
Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates global spending on data centers is likely to surpass $250 billion by 2030.
Microsoft recently said it will spend about $80 billion this year to ramp up its AI capacity.
