OpenAI announced on 22 May 2025 that it has launched Stargate UAE, a new data centre partnership in the United Arab Emirates [source]. The announcement describes the facility as part of OpenAI's expansion of compute infrastructure outside the United States, with the UAE government and local partners contributing capital and hosting arrangements.

The blog post states that Stargate UAE will support OpenAI's models for customers in the Middle East and North Africa region, with data residency options for enterprise clients. OpenAI did not specify which models will be available through the facility or whether any model behaviour differs from US-hosted deployments.

The announcement follows OpenAI's January 2025 disclosure of the Stargate Project, a US-based infrastructure initiative backed by SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX. The UAE facility appears to operate under separate agreements, though OpenAI has not published full contractual or governance details.

No technical specifications for the UAE data centre were provided. OpenAI stated that the facility is "operational" as of the announcement date but did not clarify whether it is serving live traffic or in a testing phase.

The move extends OpenAI's geographic footprint into a jurisdiction with distinct data protection and content moderation frameworks. OpenAI's blog post does not address how local regulatory requirements may affect model outputs, content filtering, or data handling practices for UAE-based users.

This is the first public confirmation of OpenAI infrastructure in the Gulf region. The company has not announced similar partnerships in other Middle Eastern countries.