The United States will thus be able to “stay at the cutting edge of technology,” declared the leader of the Republicans.
US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion Emirati investment to build new data centers in the United States, IT infrastructure in high demand with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). This investment will allow the United States “to stay at the cutting edge of technology”the Republican said in a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence. “AI is important in data centers, and it’s going to be a hot topic in the years to come”he added. According to him, Emirati billionaire Hussein Sajwani promised “at least 20 billion”. “Maybe they will double, maybe they will even more than double this amount”he said, regarding the Emirati real estate giant Damac Properties, Hussein Sajwani’s company.
The two men have been doing business together for years. Damac Properties notably built the Trump International Golf Club, inaugurated in Dubai in February 2017, three months after the first election of Donald Trump. Hussein Sajwani posted a photo last week of himself with the president-elect and Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago for the holiday season. New data centers must first be built in eight states, including Texas and Arizona. The Emirati promoter briefly took the floor to congratulate the president-elect. “The election of (Donald Trump) in November was extraordinary news for me and my family. We have been waiting for four years to increase our investments in the United States to reach very significant amounts.he declared.
Last month, Japanese technology investment firm SoftBank pledged to spend $100 billion in the United States over the next four years. “My confidence in the United States economy grew enormously after (the) victory” of the Republican, indicated Masayoshi Son, boss of the Japanese group, during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on December 16. Donald Trump’s first election had already been marked by major investment announcements. The Washington Post notes, however, that “certain promises announced by Trump have not been kept”.
AI race
The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 has kicked off an international race between technology companies and the world’s leading powers to deploy generative AI, which has the potential to transform many industries. It requires immense computing capacities, and therefore new data centers containing ever more efficient servers, with cutting-edge electronic components. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and their competitors are investing tens of billions in these energy-intensive infrastructures, which compromise their efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Microsoft plans to spend $80 billion in one year to build data centers, more than half of which in the United States.
