UAE billionaire Hussain Sajwani bets $66 billion on data centers to ride the AI boom

From Real Estate to Data Infrastructure

Hussain Sajwani, the UAE real estate magnate known as "The Donald of Dubai," is making a bold pivot that could reshape the global data infrastructure landscape1

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. The DAMAC Properties chairman, who ranks second on Forbes' Arab rich-list with a net worth of $15.3 billion, is pumping a staggering $66 billion investment into data centers to capitalize on the AI boom2

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. His company DAMAC Digital has earmarked sites in 13 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, targeting a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts capacity if all projects are completed1

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The COVID-19 Epiphany That Sparked a Vision

Speaking from the Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes, Sajwani revealed that endless hours on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic convinced him to pivot to data centers, well before OpenAI's ChatGPT launch in late 2022 triggered the current AI frenzy1

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. "The idea came during Covid, where everybody was locked down and I was spending a lot of hours on Zoom," he explained, noting that the growth of e-commerce and video conferencing made the data demand obvious. "Honestly, I never thought there would be such growth," he admitted, acknowledging that timing and fortune played crucial roles. DAMAC Digital, launched in 2021, has already completed sites in Thailand and Saudi Arabia, with eight facilities expected to be operational by year's end1

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Ambitious Plans to Overtake the World's Largest Data Center Provider

Sajwani's ambitions extend far beyond regional dominance. He openly declared his intention to surpass Equinix, currently the world's largest data center provider with more than 280 sites1

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. "We want to be bigger than them. We want to be the top in the world," he stated confidently2

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. Five hyperscalers—major players in cloud services and AI including companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google—have already signed on as clients, though DAMAC cannot disclose their names1

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. The billionaire expects DAMAC Digital to eventually outstrip DAMAC Properties as the largest entity in his empire, which also encompasses investment and logistics divisions2

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Betting Big Despite Geopolitical Risks

The expansion comes despite regional instability, including drone strikes on data centers in the UAE and Bahrain during Iranian attacks1

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. Sajwani remained unfazed, praising the UAE government's resilience and defense capabilities2

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. His global footprint includes Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Italy, Finland and Sweden, alongside the United Arab Emirates1

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. The real estate magnate, who attended President Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration and announced a $20 billion investment in US data centers alongside him, dismissed concerns about an AI bubble or oversupply2

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. "In the coming three or four years, the demand is huge," he insisted, predicting that AI will transform every aspect of human life1

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. With nearly 6,000 megawatts of landbank—parcels with sufficient computing power and fiber connectivity—Sajwani's bet on surging data demand positions him at the center of the infrastructure race fueling artificial intelligence development worldwide2

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