Mubbadrah leads $3bn plan for 400MW AI data centre in Oman

London, UK - A group of Omani and international companies headed by Mubbadrah Investment plans to build an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre in Oman worth $3 billion, sized for up to 400 megawatts (MW) of capacity when finished.

Mubbadrah’s partners in the venture are Sustopia Capital, Vela Tech and O2 Global Energy. The campus is intended for hyperscale computing operators, and the consortium has left scope to expand it in future.

The plan was unveiled at a signing ceremony in London, held during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s state visit to the United Kingdom. The announcement presented it as part of wider economic and commercial ties between Oman and the UK.

Oman Tax Authority chairman Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi attended the ceremony, as did Liane Saunders, the UK Ambassador to Oman, and officials from the UK trade office.

According to the consortium, the campus will run AI training and inference workloads at large scale, pairing Omani and international expertise with investment, technology and development capability drawn from around the world.

Between them, Sustopia Capital and Vela Tech have roughly 20 gigawatts (GW) of AI data centre capacity in development, design and construction worldwide, the announcement said.

Electricity for the site will come from Oman’s national grid and from renewables. O2 Global Energy is to build 400 MW of solar generation, backed by battery storage, as an extra clean supply for the campus.

Mubbadrah was formed in Muscat in 2005 and is a diversified holding company of more than 20 companies, with interests in energy, mining, manufacturing, IT, real estate and healthcare. Energy is its largest business.

Yasser Albarami, CEO of Mubbadrah Investment, said: “As an Omani investment group with a portfolio of more than 20 companies across oil and gas, hospitality, healthcare and other sectors, Mubbadrah Investment is proud to lead this consortium of Omani and international companies.”

“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, creating lasting value and opportunities for Oman and its people,” he added.

Nikhil Chouguley, CEO of Sustopia Capital, said: “We are proud of Sustopia Capital’s growing role in developing the next generation of mission-critical digital infrastructure. Through our 5 GW data centre platform spanning Denmark, the United States and the United Kingdom, we are building the foundations for the next era of AI, quantum computing and digital innovation.”

“Our expansion into Oman is a strategic extension of this vision, positioning Sustopia at the intersection of the global AI infrastructure and energy transition,” he added.

Jeff Fini, CEO of Vela Tech, said he was delighted to join the team. His company will support the design of the campus and manage its construction until the project is successfully completed.

“We will draw on our last three years of AI data centre expertise, starting with Stargate in Abilene, Texas, and several other large multi-megawatt sites totaling over 20 GW for almost all of the hyperscale, cloud and AI companies,” he said.

O2 Global Energy operates in several countries and brings 12 years of work on solar and renewable energy developments to the scheme, according to its Founder and CEO, Yazan Faouri.

“As the founder of both O2 and H2 Global Energy, a leading green hydrogen and green ammonia developer in the MENA region, I look forward to delivering clean, reliable power for one of the region’s most important digital infrastructure projects,” he said.

US AI infrastructure and cloud computing company Crusoe has signalled that it may take up the campus’s capacity as an off-taker. The consortium expects to put that interest in writing within the coming weeks as the project moves ahead.