An Abu Dhabi sovereign investor is forging a $25 billion US partnership to invest in power generation for data centers and artificial intelligence projects, soon after President Donald Trump hosted a top royal from the emirate.
ADQ, a fund from the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and investment firm Energy Capital Partners will initially put in a combined $5 billion, according to a statement. The partnership ultimately plans total investments of more than $25 billion, mainly on US assets, the statement said.
The deal was unveiled soon after Trump hosted Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and a brother to its president, at the White House. The Abu Dhabi royal chairs ADQ, which is a $249 billion sovereign wealth fund.
Energy and technology are emerging as a new nexus of the relationship between the oil-rich UAE and the US, alongside traditional areas of cooperation like defense and security.
The US is looking to drive investments to keep its lead in AI, just as the UAE seeks to bolster its access to advanced microchips and computing skills from American companies. People familiar with Sheikh Tahnoon’s plans ahead of his travel had said he would seek easier access to chips and highlight his country’s plans for tech infrastructure in the US.
The UAE is attempting to become a regional powerhouse in AI and wants to buy cutting-edge chips from companies including Nvidia Corp. Still, Abu Dhabi’s ambitions have been curbed by restrictions on exports of advanced chips put into place under former President Joe Biden.
Energy Capital Partners is focused on investing in electricity and sustainability infrastructure, and has large investments in the US. It was acquired by London-listed financial giant Bridgepoint Group Plc in 2024 to create an investment firm with a combined $73 billion of assets under management across private equity, credit and infrastructure.
“This is only the start,” Hamad Al Hammadi, ADQ’s deputy group chief executive officer, said in an interview, referring to planned $25 billion in investments. “We don’t have an issue of increasing the capital if opportunities arise.” The partnership aims to invest the full amount within the next five years and then raise more funds if it spots new targets, he said.
The joint investment project with ADQ is likely to appeal to the Trump administration’s drive to attract funds to the US and boost energy production. Emirati companies have discussed building data centers in the US and the two countries are cooperating in technology and artificial intelligence initiatives.
Sheikh Tahnoon’s $1.5 trillion business empire spans everything from wealth funds to the region’s foremost AI firm — G42 — which has drawn funding from Microsoft Corp. and signed deals with Nvidia and OpenAI. He also oversees MGX, which is helping bankroll Trump’s $100 billion Stargate venture and a $30 billion AI investment coalition led by Microsoft and BlackRock Inc.
In recent months, Trump has touted hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commitments from firms into US technology infrastructure, although timelines of some investments haven’t always been clear.
The new ADQ venture will rely on a mix of debt and equity to fund projects, Al Hammadi said. The partners have an initial pipeline of projects under consideration that could amount to deals for about 10 gigawatts of electricity production, said Al Hammadi, who also oversees the wealth fund’s energy portfolio.
Vice President JD Vance said at a tech summit that the administration is pleased to have an Emirati delegation in Washington and hailed the nation as a viable AI partner.
“One of the things they consistently hammer upon — it’s something that unfortunately too few of our European allies tend to get — is that if you want to lead in artificial intelligence, you’ve got to be leading in energy production,” Vance said. The UAE is the fourth-biggest oil producer in OPEC.
The ADQ-ECP venture aims to sign its first deals within a year of starting up, Al Hammadi said. He declined to say where the initial plants would be. The partners will focus mainly on developing power plants fired by natural gas and could incorporate carbon capture technology to lower the environmental footprint, Al Hammadi said.
Power plants built by the venture will provide electricity directly to specific technology projects like data centers, rather than supplying the wider grid, Al Hammadi said.
The partners will tailor the design of the power projects to a customer’s demand, while catering to potential requests for electricity with lower carbon emission. That could include power from renewables and could include battery storage, Al Hammadi said, adding the partners weren’t likely to build coal-fired plants.
