Ambassador Al Otaiba Delivers Remarks at SCSP AI+ Expo on UAE-US AI Partnership

Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba delivered keynote remarks at the SCSP AI+ Expo in Washington, D.C., speaking to the UAE's AI strategy and the depth of the UAE-US AI partnership.

Thanks, Karan.

And thank you to Google—to Fred and the Atlantic Council—for your partnership, for hosting this event, and for putting Omran to work on today’s panel.

Your report calls the UAE “one of the most ambitious AI playbooks among emerging economies.”

We think you got that right. But it may understate the case.

This is not just a playbook for emerging markets. It is a model for any country that wants to move fast and build AI it can trust.

No partnership has done more to make that possible than the one between the UAE and the United States.

Together, we are building what may be the most consequential economic partnership of this decade.

We are investing in the US—in AI infrastructure, in energy, in manufacturing—and creating thousands of jobs across America.

A trillion dollars already invested. $1.4 trillion committed over the next decade. More than 30 deals signed in the past year alone. We are moving, and we’re moving fast.

A significant part of that commitment is about accelerating our cooperation on advanced technology—and we are not slowing down.

The UAE is all in on American tech. We are not hedging. We are not diversifying away. We made a choice—and we are doubling down on it.

The 5GW US UAE AI Campus is under construction now. We broke ground during President Trump’s visit exactly a year ago. The first 200 megawatts will come online very soon.

In November, the US approved the export of thousands of next-generation chips to enable it.

And I’m happy to announce: the first batch of advanced chips have been delivered to the UAE, and more are on the way.

The reach of this infrastructure matters.

From Abu Dhabi, American technology can serve roughly half the world's population. This will be a model for how to deploy US technology responsibly and bring AI to the markets that need it most.

None of this happened overnight.

The UAE has been building toward this moment for more than a decade. We appointed the world's first AI minister in 2017. We built the Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence—one of the world's leading AI research universities—from the ground up.

University president Professor Eric Xing will be on stage tomorrow afternoon. It is worth staying for.

We have put in place what we believe is a gold standard for securing advanced technology—rigorous and transparent, with active oversight by both governments.

That is what the Regulated Technology Environment is—and why we joined Pax Silica.

On Pax Silica: the UAE is not just another signatory—we are driving this together with the US and other partners. This framework covers AI, critical minerals, supply chains—the full architecture of the silicon age.

And joining it was a choice. So was leaving OPEC. After nearly 60 years, we walked away—not over a quarrel about quotas, but because that era is over. OPEC was built for oil-dependent states. The UAE hasn’t been one for a long time. Less than a quarter of our GDP is now tied to energy.

The new club is built on AI, advanced technology, and trusted partnerships. Nothing signals that shift more clearly than what we are building together.

We believe the future of AI must be grounded in trust. And we are working with the US to build the architecture that makes that principle real.

The UAE has faced tests before. We have faced moments when the world became more uncertain, when partners pulled back, when the path forward was less clear.

We did not retreat. We leaned in.

We have learned how to build in a dangerous neighborhood. We are reviewing our critical infrastructure—data centers, energy facilities, logistics hubs. We will harden what needs hardening and close the gaps that were exposed.

And we will come out stronger—with deeper ties to American companies, deeper investment in American technology, and a clearer sense of where we are going.

The question for this room—how you build AI infrastructure that is trusted, secure and globally deployable—is the question the UAE has been answering in practice, for years.

The future of AI will be shaped by countries willing to invest, to commit, and to be held accountable. We are all three—and we intend to be a model for others.

Thank you.