UAE billionaire Hussein Sajwani said on Friday he expects more investment from the oil-rich Gulf in the United States as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s second term heralds a “pro-business” climate. The real estate mogul and longtime Trump business partner announced this week at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that he plans to invest $20 billion in data centers in eight U.S. states over the next few years, reported by Reuters.
Saiwani, whose Dubai-based real estate firm DAMAC Properties owns the only Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East, made the announcement alongside Trump, who has pledged to speed up regulatory processes for such large investments. “I think his overall policy is to support business,” Saiwani told Reuters at his home on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah.
Investment encouraged by Trump’s business policies, Sajwani says
The policies will encourage others to invest in the United States in the coming years, he said, adding that there are significant opportunities in artificial intelligence and other technologies. Sajwani, who made much of his fortune building residential neighborhoods and apartment towers in Dubai, is an investor in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and artificial intelligence company xAI.
The Emirati tycoon celebrated New Year’s with Trump, Musk and other guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort and said he had been invited to the inauguration in Washington on January 20. Forbes estimates Sajwani’s fortune at $5.1 billion. Trump and his family have business ties to Gulf countries beyond his long-standing partnership with Sajwani. Trump-branded real estate projects are being built under partnership agreements in Saudi Arabia and Oman, and Gulf sovereign wealth funds are investors in an investment company owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Hussein Sajwani plans to invest in data centers
The UAE is vying to become a leader in artificial intelligence amid growing competition in the region, as Qatar and Saudi Arabia also invest heavily in the technology and position themselves as potential global AI hubs. Sajwani’s data center investments are being made by DAMAC subsidiary EDGNEX, which manages and builds data centers in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
EDGNEX plans to build and own 2,000 megawatts of data centers over the next four years in Texas, Arizona, Illinois and five other Sunbelt and Midwestern states. Sajwani cited access to land, energy and “more business-friendly permits” as reasons why the centers would be built there, and said much of the investment would be financed through debt. DAMAC, which plans to finance 60-70% of the investment through debt, is working with international banks and will offer the data centers under construction as collateral.
The remaining 30% will come from DAMAC Properties’ balance sheet, drawing on funds the company has been generating from real estate projects it launched years ago. The deal is likely to come under scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a group that reviews foreign investment from a national security perspective. Some Gulf officials have privately complained about the long time it takes for the interagency panel to review such deals. Sajwani said the deal will go through the “normal process,” but he expects the new administration to “soften” the regulatory processes and “make it a little faster.”