OpenAI launches first international Stargate mission in Abu Dhabi

With a massive 5-gigawatt AI hub in Abu Dhabi, OpenAI and U.S. tech allies expand their global footprint

Author

Kim "Chubby" Isenberg
May 26, 2025

Dear Readers,

Some weeks mark more than just the progress of a project - they mark tectonic shifts.

Today's issue begins with an event that can hardly be overstated: OpenAI launches its first international Stargate mission in Abu Dhabi. What sounds like just another infrastructure project is in fact the beginning of a new geopolitical age of artificial intelligence. A 10-square-mile campus is being built in the middle of the desert, which will not only provide billions in computing power, but also cement the global dominance of American AI standards. The highlight: every Emirati dollar invested also strengthens the infrastructure in the USA - a strategic masterstroke.

But this is not the only tectonic movement: Trump announces punitive tariffs of 50% on EU imports - putting transatlantic economic relations under high tension. Meanwhile, Intuit surprises with a massive AI-driven leap in efficiency, and UBS begins to replace analysts with AI avatars. What is emerging here is more than just technology politics. It is a race for influence, standards - and the question of whose vision will shape the infrastructure of the future.

In Today’s Issue:

All the best,

OpenAI launches first international Stargate mission in Abu Dhabi

The TLDR
OpenAI, in collaboration with Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and G42, is launching Stargate UAE—a landmark 5-gigawatt AI campus in Abu Dhabi. Set to begin operations in 2026, it marks the first international deployment of OpenAI’s Stargate infrastructure. The project not only brings ChatGPT access to the entire UAE but also establishes a powerful AI hub serving up to half the world’s population. A key feature: for every UAE investment dollar, one flows back into U.S. infrastructure—cementing U.S. leadership in the global AI race while exporting its standards abroad.

With Stargate UAE, OpenAI has made a strategic move that will have a lasting impact on the global AI landscape. The first international deployment of Stargate infrastructure in Abu Dhabi will start in 2026 and marks a turning point in global AI expansion.

The project comprises a 10-square-mile campus with 5-gigawatt capacity, with a 1-gigawatt cluster with 200 megawatts already scheduled to come online in 2026. Tech giants OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco and the Emirati company G42 have joined forces for this project. Nvidia is supplying the latest Blackwell GB300 chips, while Oracle and OpenAI are taking over operations.

Particularly clever: the business model secures a double dividend for the USA. For every dollar that the UAE invests in Stargate UAE, an additional dollar flows back into the US AI infrastructure. OpenAI Vice President Chris Lehane describes it as an important “first building block” to bring as many countries as possible “onto the US rails, into the US AI system”. The US is thus consolidating its technological leadership position, while at the same time leveraging foreign investment for domestic expansion.

The UAE will be the first country in the world to enable nationwide ChatGPT access, and the infrastructure can provide AI services to a 2,000-mile radius - reaching half of the world's population. Further international Stargate projects are already being planned, with the UK being the next candidate.

Why it matters: Stargate UAE establishes a strategic model that strengthens rather than weakens U.S. AI dominance through international partnerships. The US not only secures foreign investment for domestic infrastructure, but also establishes its technology standards as the global benchmark for the AI revolution.

Sources:

Kim’s Favorite Things: Wistia

Dear Readers,

As someone who writes a high-volume AI newsletter and produces regular video content, Wistia has been a total game-changer. It’s more than just video hosting — the platform gives me powerful tools to turn viewers into subscribers, leads, or customers. I can embed product demos, explainers, and interviews with full brand control, no distracting ads, and detailed viewer analytics.

The email capture feature alone has helped grow my list faster than any social platform. It’s like having a private, high-converting video channel — tailor-made for creators who care about performance and polish.

Can’t recommend highly enough. You can check it out and get 10% off here:
https://wistia.com/chubby

In The News

BAGEL: An Open-Source Leap in Unified Multimodal AI

BAGEL is a new open-source foundational model designed for both multimodal understanding and generation, trained on trillions of tokens from interleaved text, image, video, and web data. As a decoder-only model, BAGEL achieves state-of-the-art performance among open models on tasks ranging from image editing and 3D manipulation to future frame prediction and world navigation. The research team has released the code, training details, and checkpoints to accelerate progress in open multimodal AI

This Isn’t Prompt Theory

A viral video is calling out the hype around prompt theory. It’s a reminder that we’re not prompt theory—we’re just figuring out what really works.

AI Will Replace Your Job—But Not Fix the World

By 2027–28, AI could automate nearly all white-collar work, says Anthropic’s Sholto Douglas. But without real-world breakthroughs, its impact on global GDP may fall short.

Graph of the Day

NVIDIA has achieved world-record LLM inference speed in new, industry-standard performance results.

Trump's tariff shock: 50% punitive tariffs on EU imports

On May 23, US President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced 50% punitive tariffs on all EU imports from June 1 after trade talks stalled. The EU had previously offered a gradual tariff reduction and cooperation on technology and energy. Trump's decision triggered turbulence on the financial markets and could put considerable strain on transatlantic relations.

Intuit raises forecast thanks to AI integration

Intuit is raising its full-year forecast for 2025 after AI-powered tools in TurboTax and QuickBooks increased efficiency. Revenue rose to USD 7.75 billion in the third quarter and earnings per share exceeded expectations. The share price rose by 8% in after-hours trading. This underlines how AI is driving productivity gains in the financial software industry.

UBS tests AI avatars for analyst communication

UBS is experimenting with AI-generated avatars that represent equity analysts in videos. These digital clones are based on scripts and are intended to make client communication more efficient. Although human supervision remains necessary, this points to a potential transformation of traditional analyst roles

Question of the Day

Will Trump's tariffs of 50% on imports from the EU have an impact on global chip production? Think of ASML.

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Quote of the Day

How'd We Do?

Please let us know what you think! Also feel free to just reply to this email with suggestions (we read everything you send us)!

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

© 2025 Superintelligence.

Privacy policy

Terms of use

Powered by beehiiv