UAE-based telco du launched two new sovereign AI offerings at GITEX Global 2025 on Monday – an AI Park in Dubai, and a National Hybrid AI platform via its ICT solutions arm, du Tech – that it said will position the UAE as an AI innovation hub.
The AI Park – which will be deployed in phases over a period of five years – will feature several liquid-cooled hyperscale data centres that will eventually deliver up to 1GW of capacity, which du said will support AI-level workloads in a sovereign and fully compliant environment.
The park is also designed to host AI research laboratories, start-up incubators, and a sovereign hybrid AI production and compute cluster, enabling innovators to prototype, scale, and deploy AI solutions securely within the UAE.
Meanwhile, du Tech introduced its National Hybrid AI platform that offers government entities and enterprises an integrated set of services to develop AI applications in their cloud of choice and deploy them on du Tech’s sovereign infrastructure.
Du Tech said the National Hybrid AI platform combines a sovereign-secure AI production environment with its existing National Hypercloud offering, along with 5G and fibre networks, hyperscaler partnerships, and an ecosystem of system integrators. The objective is to create a unified AI environment that lets organizations deploy, manage, and scale applications securely without heavy upfront investments.
Du CEO Fahad Al Hassawi said the AI Park – which is now in the master planning stage – will leverage du’s local and global cable connectivity with GPU-as-a-service and the National Hybrid AI platform, enabling it to not only function as a digital hub, but also provide a cost-effective, sovereign solution that enables organizations to achieve their AI digital transformation goals and move from development to production more efficiently.
“With du’s AI Park, we are not only delivering world-class digital infrastructure but also building the foundation for a thriving AI innovation ecosystem,” he said in a statement. “This underscores du’s role in advancing the UAE’s economic diversification and technological leadership.”
Du also said all of this is also designed to further the UAE’s overall ambitions to become a world-leading AI-first nation and establish one of the Middle East’s most advanced AI ecosystems.
AI is a major theme at GITEX this year. Speaking onstage at the event on Monday, UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla Bin Touq said AI must become a core pillar of government spending, on par with defence and cybersecurity, for nations to truly embrace the digital age.
Bin Touq also said the UAE has spent the past decade investing in data centres and energy infrastructure to prepare for the AI era, and ranks second only to the United States in AI infrastructure and talent development.
Du’s exhibition stand at GITEX sports the theme: “AI's not just the future. With us, it shapes your next step”.
