Chinese direct investment in the United Arab Emirates surpassed $12 billion in 2025, according to Beijing's "2025 Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment" cited by Alhurra. The report indicates Chinese technology enterprises continue to expand their presence in the UAE, including Alibaba Cloud's commitment in September to scale up data center capacity and localized artificial intelligence services.
According to tracking data from MBN, Chinese tech projects in the UAE have expanded sixteen-fold since 2015 to 81 active initiatives across sectors such as telecommunications, artificial intelligence, electronic payments, and robotics. Participating firms include Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, DJI, Yitu, and Ant International Group. In Saudi Arabia, Chinese projects grew sevenfold to 56, including Lenovo's first Saudi-manufactured laptop produced under a $2 billion agreement with Public Investment Fund subsidiary Alat, and solar investments by LONGi Green Energy and JinkoSolar.
Simultaneously, Washington has conditioned regional access to advanced American AI semiconductors on Gulf states removing Chinese hardware from their core critical infrastructure. In 2024, Washington approved Microsoft's $1.5 billion investment in Abu Dhabi AI firm G42 after G42 agreed to remove Huawei hardware and adopt U.S. standards, which involved removing $150 million worth of equipment verified by an outside auditor.
In July, the UAE secured Country Group A:5 status from the U.S. Commerce Department, allowing approved Emirati government entities and companies to import controlled U.S. technology without individual export licenses. In Saudi Arabia, state-backed firm HUMAIN is developing data centers under U.S. export guidelines alongside Nvidia, AMD, and Cisco.
Sources
- Alhurra · 2026-10-06
