SEOUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - South Korea has agreed to work

with the United Arab Emirates on the U.S.-backed Stargate

project to build a massive new artificial intelligence data

campus in the Gulf country, Seoul said on Tuesday.

South Korea said it will help build computing power and

energy infrastructure for the world's largest set of AI data

centres outside the United States, after South Korean President

Lee Jae Myung had a summit with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed

Al Nahyan.

South Korea, home to chipmakers Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF )

and SK Hynix, aims to become a regional

AI hub after President Lee, who took office on June 4,

prioritised AI investment to spur growth at a time when U.S.

tariffs have clouded the broader economic outlook.

Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) and SK Hynix in October signed

initial agreements to supply memory chips for OpenAI's Stargate

data centres.

South Korea will also help build a power grid using

nuclear power, gas and renewable energy for the Stargate

project, Ha Jung-woo, the presidential secretary on AI, said at

a briefing.

Under a strategic framework agreement signed on Tuesday,

the two countries will deepen cooperation in the field of AI,

including AI investment and infrastructure, AI supply chains and

AI research and development.

Stargate UAE is part of a deal brokered by U.S. President

Donald Trump despite previous U.S. restrictions on sending

advanced technology to the UAE because of its close ties to

China.

The first phase of that project will be the 1-gigawatt

Stargate UAE project, built by state-backed UAE firm G42 in

partnership with U.S. firms OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia ( NVDA )

and Cisco Systems ( CSCO ), as well as Japan's SoftBank

Group.