The United Arab Emirates-based billionaire Hussain Sajwani will invest $20 billion toward building data centers in the U.S., President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday, disclosing a massive investment in a burgeoning American industry and deepening his yearslong ties with Sajwani.
Hussain Sajwani speaks at the Qatar Economic Forum in 2022.
Sajwani’s investment “will support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence,” according to Trump, who appeared alongside Sajwani at a Tuesday press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Data centers are physical locations storing the immense amount of computer processing and memory needed to power AI and other advanced technologies, facilities which have become increasingly important amid the wave of generative AI.
Sajwani, who founded the Dubai-headquartered real estate company Damac Properties, said Tuesday he hopes to invest “even more than” $20 billion if the opportunity, the market, allow[s] us.”
Trump said the “first phase” of Sajwani’s investment will focus on building data centers in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.
Sajwani described Trump’s election as “amazing news for me and my family.”
The 71-year-old Sajwani is worth $5.1 billion, according to our most recent estimates, making him the second-wealthiest person based in the United Arab Emirates. The billionaires did not provide details on how Sajwani plans to finance his data center commitment.
Sajwani was a prominent figure at the beginning of Trump’s first presidential term, appearing at a 2016 New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago as his firm, Damac, built the Trump-branded golf course in Dubai opening in Feb. 2017, sparking backlash over Trump’s international business dealings while in the Oval Office. Damac has emerged as a major financier of data center projects across the globe in recent months, committing $3 billion toward data center development in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and more than $400 million toward data centers in Spain. Last month, Trump conducted a similar press conference alongside Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, who announced a $100 billion investment in U.S. ventures, largely focused on AI.
"For the people who play golf, they understand that Trump delivers the highest quality of golf courses," Sajwani told Forbes in 2017. Sajwani is not quite as avid a golfer as Trump, telling Forbes at the time he had only just completed his second lesson in the sport.