The Daily Circuit: Supersized Saudi data center + Baidu’s Dubai robotaxis

In today’s Daily Circuit, we’re reporting on Baidu winning first dibs to test its driverless vehicles in Dubai, an Abu Dhabi solar energy company issuing an $870 million green bond, Oman’s new $1 billion hydrogen pipeline and a $1.3 billion contract for Casablanca’s new airport terminal. But first, Saudi Arabia provides a massive home for its burgeoning AI data.

Saudi Arabia has broken ground on what it describes as the world’s largest government data center, launching a facility in Riyadh intended to anchor the kingdom’s digital infrastructure and support artificial intelligence services.

Construction of the the 30 million square-foot (2.8 million square-meter) Hexagon project comes as Saudi Arabia and the UAE race to position the Gulf as a global hub for AI development, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports. 

Hexagon’s size reflects Saudi Arabia’s growing use of internet-connected sensors and cameras across its cities, driving the need to process vast amounts of data. The government already uses AI-powered systems to manage traffic – including 14,000 cameras within Riyadh’s public transportation network – generating continuous data flows that require large-scale computing capacity.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have signed agreements to use advanced Nvidia chips, expand cloud capacity and collaborate with leading model developers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI.

Saudi Arabia has tied its push to new government-backed platforms and data centers, while the UAE has rolled out large AI campuses and investment vehicles to anchor partnerships with U.S. tech firms.

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NEOM ski resort faces challenge in meeting Asian games deadline

It isn’t easy to produce snow in the desert.

That basic problem surrounding Saudi Arabia’s planned Trojena ski resort is emerging as a major test of the kingdom’s $1.5 trillion NEOM development as it races to fulfill its commitment to hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games.

Introduced in 2022 as one of NEOM’s eye-popping, futuristic projects, Trojena is building ski slopes atop luxury hotel roofs, a lake hanging over a mountain cliff and a crystal skyscraper the size of the Eiffel Tower.

Trojena, which is estimated to cost $19 billion, is already likely to miss its target completion date of 2026, Bloomberg reports.

That worries officials at the Asian Games, who generally expect key infrastructure to be in place well in advance of major events

Among concerns being raised are the challenges of pumping enough water up a mountain for a planned lake at Trojena, creating sufficient artificial snow and the difficulties of building at high altitudes in an area with complex topography.

NEOM, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, maintains the project will meet its deadlines.

“The development of NEOM, including Trojena, is progressing according to a phased plan that emphasizes international standards, long-term sustainability and legacy outcomes,” the company said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Work on Trojena, Neom’s year-round mountain destination, continues.”

UAE sees fast track for alliance with U.S. on AI development

The UAE is eager to push ahead with the joint development plan on artificial intelligence that U.S. President Donald Trump announced during his visit to Abu Dhabi in May.

In a message on X posted Wednesday, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba noted his country’s pledge for $1.4 trillion in investments focusing on American AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing.

“The UAE welcomes President Trump’s AI Action Plan and is ready to fast-track our strategic AI partnership with the U.S.,” Al Otaiba wrote. “We are collaboratively setting a new ‘Gold Standard’ for securing AI models, chips, data and access.”

The ambassador called attention to the planned UAE-U.S. AI campus that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed displayed to Trump, which will be able to provide a massive 5 gigawatts of power for AI data centers.

Also highlighted by Al Otaiba was a partnership deal agreed upon by Abu Dhabi’s G42 tech company, Oracle and the Cleveland Clinic to launch an AI-based global healthcare delivery platform.

In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the government launched its new National Artificial Intelligence Index on Wednesday to measure how agencies perform in terms of AI readiness and use of advanced data-driven technology.

Dar Global expects sellout by summer for Dubai’s Trump Tower

Dar Global, the Saudi developer behind Dubai’s planned $1 billion Trump Tower, expects the building to sell out by the end of summer and is planning to launch more projects with the Trump Organization.

The project, launched in April, is expected to be finished in five years and will feature more than 500 homes, with two $20 million penthouses, a Trump-branded hotel and a clubhouse.

“Sales have been strong, [there has been] very good reception for the brand, for the mix and the location,” Dar Global CEO Ziad El Chaar told The National.

Dubai’s property market has continued its steep ascent, with the average price per square foot reaching AED 1,808 ($492) in May.

Neom’s woes accumulate with report detailing cost overruns

Questions continue to pile up about whether Saudi Arabia’s massive Neom development can come close to fulfilling its cosmic ambitions.

A recent tip-off to problems plaguing the sprawling project was a celebrity-packed launch party in October on Neom’s Sindalah resort island, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a surprise no-show, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Three years late with more than $2 billion in cost overruns, what was supposed to be Neom’s glittering early showpiece was more an active construction site – with Sindalah’s hotels unfinished and high winds disrupting ferries and golf tee-offs, the Journal recounts. Weeks later, Neom CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr was out of a job.

“After spending more than $50 billion, the Crown Prince’s sci-fi-inspired dreams – an arid-mountain ski resort, a floating business district, and The Line, the 106-mile-long pair of Empire State Building-height skyscrapers that is Neom’s centerpiece – have collided with reality,” the newspaper writes.

Evidence of the project’s epic troubles comes from a 100-page internal audit that was presented to members of Neom’s board last spring and reviewed by the Journal.

The report estimates the capital expenditure required to build Neom to its “end-state” by 2080 at $8.8 trillion – more than 25 times the annual Saudi budget – and $370 billion for its first phase by 2035. It said the audit found “evidence of deliberate manipulation” of finances by “certain members of management.”

At Neom’s Trojena project, which will be the Gulf’s first outdoor ski resort and official site for the 2029 Asian Winter Games if it’s built by then, the report show cost overruns of more than $10 billion.

A Neom spokeswoman said the Journal was “incorrectly interpreting” and misrepresenting figures in the report, adding that the project “remains on track, demonstrating tangible progress.”

Aldar builds $476 million tower complex at site of Dubai Expo

Three years ago, the pandemic-delayed Expo 2020 drew virtually every country on the planet to set up a pavilion at Dubai’s sprawling fairgrounds.

Now Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest real estate developer, is pouring half a billion dollars into the site and catering to the home crowd.

Known these days as Expo City and neighboring the newly expanded Dubai World Central airport, the location will soon sprout six towers filled with luxury apartments, corporate offices and specialty retailers, Aldar said in a statement on Wednesday.

The $476 million project, a joint venture with government-administered Expo City Dubai, will be built on a plot measuring 1.1 million square feet, and managed by Aldar through its completion.

The Expo 2020 site also hosted the COP28 climate conference last year.

Aldar is counting on the soaring demand for property in Dubai that has provided incentive for developers to reach beyond the city’s packed downtown area and led many residents to move to more affordable areas in the UAE.

UAE’s AI drive may lead to TSMC, Samsung building factories

The UAE’s determination to become a world center for AI development is attracting new interest from Asia’s big chipmakers.

Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics have discussed building large facilities to manufacture semiconductors in the UAE that could help propel the Gulf state to its goal of recognition as an artificial intelligence power, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Under initial terms being discussed, the projects would be funded by the UAE, with a central role for the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund and state-owned investment company MGX, which is focused on AI technology.

Amid the avalanche of interest in artificial intelligence, UAE-owned G42 has signed a variety of agreements with Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia over recent months.

Mubadala-backed Aldar inks deal with DP World for Dubai logistics park

Mubadala-backed Aldar Properties has signed an agreement with DP World to develop a 1.55 million-square-foot logistics park as Abu Dhabi’s biggest real estate developer looks to expand in Dubai and respond to e-commerce driven demand for warehousing.

The project at National Industries park in the Jebel Ali neighborhood of Dubai gives Aldar access to develop and lease assets in a strategic location between Dubai’s major port and Al Maktoum International Airport.

The deal comes at a time when the UAE is jockeying for position in the global supply chain and to play a role in the region’s future food security.

The agreement with DP World is part of a $270 million investment Aldar announced in January to expand its logistics real estate business in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. 

Gulf’s first casino resort sparks building boom in Ras Al Khaimah

Anticipation of the Gulf’s first sanctioned casino complex has sparked a development boom in the UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, with five-star resorts and multi-million dollar villas rapidly springing up from the desert sands.

Las Vegas casino operator Wynn Resorts last year announced plans for a $4 billion resort on the artificial Marjan islands, about one hour’s drive north of Dubai, which had been all but abandoned since they were completed in 2013.

Now, more than 20 developers are busy at work with Marjan, the owner of the islands, planning to build 9,000 new hotel rooms and as many villas, Bloomberg reports.

Currently there are six hotels with a total of 3,052 rooms, including JW Marriott and Rixos.

Already popular with Russian and Chinese tourists, the resort is expected to lure foreign gamblers looking for a taste of Las Vegas closer to home.

RAK’s small international airport is planning to triple its capacity to 2 million passengers with construction of a new terminal by 2027, when the casino resort is expected to open to the public.