DUBAI, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The first 200 megawatts of a

planned 5-gigawatt artificial intelligence campus in the United

Arab Emirates should come online next year, an official from Abu

Dhabi-backed cloud and AI firm G42 said on Tuesday.

The UAE, a major oil exporter, has been spending billions of

dollars to become a global AI hub, looking to leverage its

strong relations with Washington to secure access to technology.

During a Gulf visit by U.S. President Donald Trump in May,

the UAE signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build one of the

world's largest data centre hubs in Abu Dhabi with U.S.

technology. G42 said at the time that the project would be

powered by nuclear and solar power, as well as natural gas.

DISCUSSIONS ONGOING FOR REST OF PROJECT

Technology giants Nvidia ( NVDA ), OpenAI, Cisco ( CSCO ),

and Oracle, along with Japan's SoftBank, are

working with G42 to build the first phase, known as Stargate

UAE, set to go online in 2026.

"Building towards the (first) 1 GW, we have 200 MW that

should come online next year," G42 acting group chief global

affairs officer Talal Al Kaissi said at the AI and tech GITEX

conference in Dubai.

"The rest of the four gigawatts, we're also in deep

discussions with other hyperscalers from the U.S.," Al Kaissi

said.

However, the deal to build the campus has not been finalised

amid security concerns due to the UAE's close ties to China,

Reuters has previously reported, citing sources.

Middle Eastern deals will require export licences from the

Trump administration, and G42's past ties to China have drawn

scrutiny in Washington due to concerns around Beijing's access

to advanced semiconductors including via third parties.

Al Kaissi said he regularly visited Washington to support

good working relations.