UAE is a preferred partner in the AI race, says US Interior Secretary

Doug Burgum tells Hadley Gamble of potential to future-proof AI infrastructure

Doug Burgum, the US Interior Secretary and chairman of America’s Energy Dominance Council, has praised the country’s relationship with the UAE in areas including the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence.

“You've got a trusted relationship … mutual investment in protecting each other in terms of defence,” Mr Burgum said in On The Record with Hadley Gamble.

“A 1-2-3 agreement on nuclear. I mean, there's a number of things where you'd say, hey, there's great alignment to make this happen.”

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In an exclusive interview, the chairman of President Donald Trump’s Energy Dominance Council said that while the promised $1.4 trillion in UAE investment in the US was welcome, it is the opportunity to future-proof AI infrastructure that he is most excited about.

"I think one of the ideas that all countries [have] is how do they have a sovereign AI factory?” Mr Burgum said. "How do you make sure that if you're producing intelligence, that that intelligence supports the values that you're trying to drive as a country, as opposed to the bias that might be in someone else's algorithm or models?”

With the complexity of data sovereignty likely to dictate much of the decision-making process when it comes to building out AI infrastructure, the choice of partnership nations is more important than ever.

“The UAE is a country that’s got a great alignment with the United States in terms of a set of values, our economic visions, in terms of the potential for partnership, with a tremendous amount of capital to invest through their various sovereign wealth funds,” Mr Burgum said, all crucial factors in aligning on AI.

Beyond the energy imperative, Mr Burgum said: “When you're on that piece of soil, you follow the rules of the home country. In the same way we’ve built embassies abroad … there’s an opportunity for people that have rich energy resources and stable governments to be able to say, ‘hey, alongside your embassy let’s build an AI data centre’. That means that’s your [sovereign] data, that’s your land. And you’re protecting it."

As countries and companies look to adapt to data sovereignty and the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, building out infrastructure in the right places is crucial.

“The UAE is definitely one of those,” Mr Burgum said. “I think ... people would say, ‘hey, this would be a great place, because you've got a trusted relationship’."