Mubbadrah Investment leads a consortium planning a 400MW AI data centre in Oman, and US firm Crusoe has signalled potential interest as a customer. The initial investment is $3bn (about AED 11 billion), and the consortium plans to expand the campus later.
The project was announced on 24 October at a signing ceremony in London, during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s state visit to the UK. Data Center Dynamics reported the plan, and Utilities Middle East gave the fullest account.
The campus is purpose-built for hyperscalers, the large cloud companies, and will host large-scale AI training and inference workloads. O2 Global Energy, a Dubai-based renewable developer, will build 400MW of solar generation with battery storage to supplement grid supply. The campus will also draw on Oman’s national grid.
Who is behind it
Sustopia Capital, led by CEO Nikhil Chouguley, is one of the international partners. Its own platform covers 5GW across Denmark, the US, and the UK.
Vela Tech, a US data centre developer, will support the design and manage construction. Its CEO, Jeff Fini, says Vela will draw on three years of AI data centre work, starting with Stargate in Abilene, Texas. Together, Sustopia and Vela say they are involved in about 20GW of AI data centre projects worldwide.
Mubbadrah was formed in Muscat in 2005. It is a diversified holding company with more than 20 businesses, and energy is its largest area. Enterprise AM calls this its first AI venture.
Oman has the stability, the strategic location and the energy resources to become a regional home for AI infrastructure, and we are delighted to bring together partners with the capital, technology and experience to make that happen.
Yasser Albarami, CEO of Mubbadrah Investment
Crusoe’s interest
Crusoe is a US AI infrastructure and cloud firm. Enterprise AM describes it as the lead developer of OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate campus in Abilene, Texas, and as Mubadala-backed.
The consortium says Crusoe has indicated interest as a potential off-taker, or customer, for the campus’s capacity. It expects to sign a confirmation of that interest in the next few weeks. That isn’t a contract. The announcement doesn’t establish a binding agreement to purchase or lease capacity.
What’s still unknown
Yasser Albarami’s LinkedIn post, as reported by BeBeez, says the $3bn covers buildings, electricity, cooling, network connectivity, and fibre. Albarami adds that tenants typically supply servers and specialised chips, as an extra investment on top of that.
The announcement gives no site, construction timeline or financing structure yet. It doesn’t say how the $3bn splits between equity and debt, and it doesn’t name a completion date.
On power, aiinoman.com argues that solar doesn’t run at night, so unless the battery fleet is very large, the grid will carry much of the night-time load. The same analysis says the developer’s track record on a project this size is unproven.
According to aiinoman.com, Oman’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology launched the second phase of its National Digital Economy Programme two days before the London signing. The phase includes plans for specialised AI data centres of up to 500MW, and the ministry didn’t name developers or a timetable. Separately, UK developer Yamna signed a $1.3bn framework with the ministry to build an AI data centre in Salalah.
For the same kind of funding in Saudi Arabia, see Tbreak’s coverage of HUMAIN Infra financing deals, which bring up to $667m for AI chips and power. For a sense of what these campuses cost, see the Oracle $16B data center bet.
The next thing to watch is whether Crusoe’s confirmation is signed.
