The United Arab Emirates quit the world’s most powerful oil cartel on May 1, freeing billions in oil revenue while placing its biggest bet yet on artificial intelligence.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had capped UAE oil production at 3.2 million barrels a day for a country that can pump 4.8 million. That gap is worth more than $61 billion a year at current Brent prices. Within two days of exiting the cartel, ADNOC, the state oil company, announced $55 billion in accelerated spending on oil production, refining, and petrochemical operations.
The extra revenue would give the government more capital to deploy through its AI and energy investment funds, Babak Hafezi, CEO of HafeziCapital, a firm that advises Gulf governments on investment strategy, told Rest of World.
“Gulf capital is structurally becoming infrastructure capital for the AI economy, not purely financial capital,” Hafezi said.
The U.S. artificial intelligence industry is deeply embedded in the UAE. Microsoft is building data centers there, and Emirati tech conglomerate G42 is constructing a five-gigawatt campus for OpenAI. ADNOC is buying into U.S. gas infrastructure, citing growing electricity demand from data centers as a key driver.
