PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – Emirati billionaire Hussein Sajwani has pledged to invest $20 billion in the booming U.S. data center industry in the coming years, he and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday at Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. Florida.
With an election victory driven largely by voters’ economic concerns, Trump has redoubled efforts to support investment in domestic industry and proposed higher tariffs on Chinese goods as the U.S. tries to limit China’s access to chips needed for advanced data centers.
“We plan to invest $20 billion and even more if market opportunities allow us,” Sajwani, chairman of Dubai developer DAMAC, said at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
DAMAC owns the Middle East’s only Trump-branded golf course in Dubai, which opened in 2017, and the billionaire celebrated New Year’s with Trump in Florida.
Trump loves statements promising economic growth, although such investments do not always pay off. At the start of his first term, he announced $10 billion. Foxconn (CC:) investment in a plant in Wisconsin that promised thousands of jobs but was largely abandoned.
Last month, Trump and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son announced that the Japanese tech investor would invest $100 billion in the US over the next four years, focusing on artificial intelligence.
The introduction of OpenAI’s GenAI ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022 ushered in a wave of investment in generative AI technologies and the expensive infrastructure required to support them, including power generation and transmission.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:) said last week it will spend about $80 billion this fiscal year to build out its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Restrictions on exports to China of coveted artificial intelligence chips used in advanced data centers have tightened under the Biden administration, and Trump has appointed Chinese hardliners to key diplomatic and economic roles in his administration.