UAE to produce 60 trillion AI tokens to become world's 'factory of intelligence'

Investments and partnerships will play biggest role in achieving goal, AI Minister Omar Al Olama says

Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications. Photo: UAE Presidential Court

The UAE is planning to produce 60 trillion artificial intelligence tokens through its vast Stargate data centre, as it bids to become the global centre for the technology, the country's Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications has said.

The figure would be equivalent to about 60 per cent of global production and is a key part of the Emirates' ambitions to be the “world's factory of intelligence”, Omar Al Olama told the Milken Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

Tokens in AI are the basic unit to calculate the length of text and can include punctuation marks and spaces, and vary from language to language. The bigger the token count, the more comprehensive the generated results are. Data such as text, images, audio clips and videos are translated into tokens is the process known as tokenisation.

AI factories are a new class of data centre designed to accelerate workloads that efficiently crunch through tokens, converting them from the language of AI to the currency of AI, which is intelligence, according to chip giant Nvidia.

“The currency of the future is going to be tokens, that can be used and transformed into insights or intelligence that will help in decision making, improve the quality of life and improve productivity,” Mr Al Olama said.

“We're trying to reach the capacity of being able to [develop] a token factory that produces 60 trillion tokens.”

He did not provide a time frame for reaching the goal. “So many fundamentals need to check out.” he said.

Stargate, which has a planned capacity of 1 gigawatt, is expected to operate on a 200-megawatt capacity in 2026. It is part of a larger 5GW campus in Abu Dhabi.

“No one is certain about anything, but the investment is there. As long as our partners work with us and we're able to get what we need at the right time, then we are certain,” Mr Al Olama said.

Timelapse: Abu Dhabi's AI campus Stargate UAE progresses rapidly

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“We are not looking at this blindly. We are going to increase capacity as demand increases as well. You can create a 5GW facility today … it could increase or decrease over time, but from where we stand today, 5GW is what we're going to have.”

Mr Al Olama also sought to calm down fears of a potential technology bubble, on the back of analysts pointing to overvaluations in the stock market.

“It depends on what time period you're looking at. The dot-com bubble was a bubble in that time period. If you look at it in hindsight, the internet wasn't a bubble [as] it came back roaring,” he said.

“The largest companies in the world became internet companies and it transformed our lives. If your time frame was five years, then the word bubble was right. If your time frame was 20, then the word bubble was wrong because the numbers today are much higher than they ever were.”

Dh500m savings in energy production

Mr Al Olama said that using AI tools in energy production has helped the UAE save about Dh500 million ($136 million), reflecting the importance of more investments into the technology.

Companies in the Emirates, especially in energy, are increasingly using AI to stem costs and improve efficiency. Adnoc Distribution, the retail arm of Adnoc, has been developing AI tools as part of a broader streamlining strategy.

“We have a metric for measurement when it comes to energy. How many barrels of oil are we producing? Or how can we reduce the cost of production using AI?” Mr Al Olama said.

“We've had savings so far of around Dh500 million. We are seeing much more savings over time. The end product of that will be productivity gains, and it will be economic returns.”