Oman AI data centre: Mubbadrah leads $3bn, 400MW plan

Omani group Mubbadrah Investment is leading a consortium that plans a $3bn Oman AI data centre with up to 400MW of capacity, the company announced on Saturday after a signing ceremony in London.

The facility is being designed for hyperscale computing operators and will support large-scale AI training and inference workloads, the consortium said. At full build-out it would have a planned capacity of up to 400 megawatts, with room for further expansion.

The agreement was signed in London during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s three-day state visit to the United Kingdom last week. Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, chairman of the Oman Tax Authority, and Liane Saunders, the UK ambassador to Oman, attended the ceremony.

Who is building the Oman AI data centre

Mubbadrah Investment heads a group of Omani and international partners. Sustopia Capital and Vela Tech will develop, design and build the campus; the two companies say they are working on about 20GW of AI data centre capacity worldwide.

O2 Global Energy will develop 400MW of solar generation backed by battery storage to supply the site, which will also draw electricity from the national grid. Yazan Faouri, founder and chief executive of O2 Global Energy, said the company would deliver “clean, reliable power” for the project.

Crusoe, a US AI infrastructure company whose backers include Oman Investment Authority, has expressed interest as a potential off-taker of the capacity. The consortium said it expects to sign a confirmation of that interest in the coming weeks.

Yasser Albarami, chief executive of Mubbadrah Investment, said Oman has “the stability, the strategic location and the energy resources” to become a regional home for AI infrastructure. Mubbadrah’s portfolio spans more than 20 companies across oil and gas, hospitality, healthcare and other sectors, according to the company.

Second Omani data centre deal in one week

The Mubbadrah announcement follows a separate plan by UK-founded infrastructure developer Yamna to build a large-scale AI data centre in Salalah. The UK government said on 21 October that the first phase of that project is expected to exceed £1bn (about $1.3bn) and create more than 100 skilled jobs in Britain.

Both projects were unveiled during the Sultan’s visit, which also produced an expanded UK-Oman Sovereign Investment Partnership covering renewable energy, technology, critical minerals, space, healthcare and financial services. UK Export Finance said it would lift its financing capacity for British exports to Oman to as much as £7bn.

Together, the two Omani projects point to more than $4bn of proposed hyperscale data centre investment in Oman announced in a single week. Neither developer has yet disclosed a construction start date or a completion schedule.

Why it matters for Gulf investors

Gulf states are competing to host AI computing capacity, with Saudi Arabia’s Humain and the UAE’s G42 and Khazna announcing large-scale capacity plans over the past year. The GCC now has more than 174 active data centre projects worth over $93bn, according to a MEED report published last week.

Oman’s coastline sits outside the Strait of Hormuz, and the sultanate has land and solar resources that developers have cited in recent announcements. Oman Investment Authority’s earlier investment in Crusoe gives the sultanate a direct link to a US AI infrastructure company that raised $3.9bn in September, according to TechCrunch.

For regional investors, the Oman AI data centre adds to a pipeline of digital infrastructure stories that has been reshaping Gulf capital flows. Outlook Middle East recently reported on the UAE’s €15bn investment pledge in Greece, which coincided with AI infrastructure agreements signed by G42 and Khazna, and on Oman Air’s appointment of Nasser Al Sharji as chief executive.

What happens next

The consortium’s immediate milestone is the expected confirmation of Crusoe’s off-take interest, which it says should come within weeks. A firm anchor tenant would be a prerequisite for financing a project of this scale.

Key details still to be disclosed about the Oman AI data centre include the exact site within Oman, the phasing of the 400MW build-out, the financing structure and the grid connection arrangements. The consortium has not said when it expects the first phase to come online.

Further information on the UK-Oman investment package is available in the UK government’s official announcement.