President Donald J. Trump Visits the U.A.E.

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(Pictured) In September 2024, President of the U.A.E. and Ruler of Abu Dhabi His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with President Trump during His Highness’s historic visit to the United States and expressed his appreciation for President Trump’s efforts in strengthening relations between the United States and U.A.E.

President of the United States Donald J. Trump will visit the U.A.E. on May 15th and 16th as part of a Gulf tour that will also include stops in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The President’s visit to Abu Dhabi will focus on U.S.-U.A.E. bilateral ties with an emphasis on advanced technology and cross-border investment. The visit will also reinforce longtime strategic partnerships, attract investment, and set the tone for deeper regional security and diplomatic coordination.

Since his first visit as President in 2016, President Trump will find a very different Gulf. It is a region even more intensely focused on economic diversification, regional integration, and conflict de-escalation. The landscape for discussion of key issues in the bilateral relationship with each country is vastly different than it was during the President’s last visit as President.

With regard to the U.A.E., the bilateral strategic partnership with the U.S. is grounded in strong security and defense cooperation, and further reinforced by deep and expanding trade and investment ties. 

  • In March 2025, the U.A.E. committed to a 10-year $1.4 trillion investment framework with the United States. It will focus on AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and manufacturing.
  • Prior to the commitment, U.A.E. investments in the United States already exceeded over $1 trillion.
  • The U.A.E. is the primary destination for U.S. exports in the Middle East region, totaling $26.9 billion in 2024 and supporting over 161,000 American jobs.
  • The U.S. enjoys a trade surplus of $19.5 billion with the U.A.E., the largest trade surplus in the Middle East region and third largest globally.

Topics of discussion for the visit include:

  • deepening the U.S.-U.A.E. economic relationship, particularly as it relates to investment in the United States
  • strengthening economic cooperation through the inclusion of the U.A.E. in the proposed CFIUS “fast track” process
  • continuing progress on securing the U.A.E.’s access to AI chips and other advanced technologies
  • collaboration in research and innovation
  • defense cooperation, including a new framework based on the U.A.E.’s designation as a Major Defense Partner
  • coordination between the two countries to address global and regional political and security developments

U.S.-U.A.E. Economic Partnership

The U.A.E.’s new $1.4 trillion investment framework into the United States promises to substantially increase the country’s existing investments in the U.S. economy over the next 10 years. The investments will be targeted at AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and manufacturing. In March 2025, key U.A.E. entities, including ADQ, Group 42, Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), ADNOC/XRG, and MGX, announced plans for U.S. investment as part of the new framework.

  • MGX: MGX, BlackRock, Microsoft, and Global Infrastructure Partners expanded their AI infrastructure investment partnership to include NVIDIA and xAI. The initial partnership promised to mobilize up to $100 billion in developing AI infrastructure, which includes building data centers in the United States. Renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP) in March 2025, the fund also announced a collaboration with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy to scale energy solutions for AI data centers. According to U.S. government formulas, this investment has the potential to create 20,000 American jobs.
  • ADQ: ADQ and Energy Capital Partners (ECP) entered into an agreement to establish a partnership in new build power generation and energy infrastructure. The U.S.-focused partnership aims to invest over $25 billion to power data centers and other industrial consumers, contributing to the creation of over 5,000 American jobs in this sector.
  • ADNOC: XRG, owned by ADNOC, affirmed its commitment to support U.S. natural gas production and exports, building upon its current investments in Next Decade LNG, as part of plans for “substantial investments in U.S. assets across gas, chemicals, energy infrastructure and low carbon solutions.” ADNOC, in partnership with ExxonMobil, had invested an estimated $2 billion in Next Decade’s RioGrande LNG (RGLNG) Project, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Cameron County, Texas that is the largest privately funded infrastructure project in Texas. This project is estimated to create over 6,000 jobs. In February 2025, ADNOC shifted some U.S. assets to its new international investment firm, ADNOC/XRG PJSC, which focuses on technologies that power the energy transition. In March 2025, ADNOC, in partnership with OMV, acquired Nova Chemicals, creating the fourth largest global polyolefins player. Nova has production sites in both Louisiana and Indiana, which employs hundreds of Americans. Additionally, ADNOC’s acquisition of Covestro includes production sites and facilities across Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. Covestro currently employs over 2,600 people in the United States.
  • Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA): Emirates Global Aluminum announced plans for its first investment in the United States to include the first new aluminum smelter in the U.S. in 35 years. The White House estimates the plan would nearly double U.S. domestic aluminum production. This could create thousands of new jobs and revitalize and transform a U.S. domestic aluminum industry that currently directly employs 164,000 workers and indirectly employs 535,000 workers.

Prior to the commitment framework announced in March, U.A.E. investments in the United States exceeded $1 trillion. This includes investments from many of the U.A.E.’s most prominent funds and companies such as ADIA, Mubadala, Group 42, MGX, and Masdar. U.S.-U.A.E. strategic economic partnerships accelerated in recent months, building on the U.A.E.’s long track record of mutually beneficial investment in the United States. 

  • MGX: In January 2025, President Trump announced the Stargate Project, which plans to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years in the United States. President Trump has said this project has the potential to create 100,000 jobs. MGX, along with OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle are the founding equity investors in this project.
  • Masdar: Masdar’s rapidly growing portfolio in the United States currently consists of four utility-scale wind projects in Texas and New Mexico and five solar projects in California. Two of the solar projects, Big Beau and Desert Harvest, include battery energy storage systems. In total, the projects have created more than 2,000 jobs in the country’s clean energy sector. Masdar is also joint owner of Terra-Gen, one of the largest independent renewable energy producers in the United States. Terra-Gen currently employs around 500 people.
  • GlobalFoundries: GlobalFoundries is Mubadala’s single largest investment, and it is the largest private investment in New York State history. GF’s Fab 8 facility, located in Saratoga County, New York, employs nearly 3,000 people and supports 15,000 indirect jobs in the region.
  • Gulftainer: In 2014, Gulftainer signed a 35-year agreement to operate a terminal at Port Canaveral, Florida, which now serves as a cargo facility for the U.S. space industry and the U.S. Air Force base on Ascension Island. At the time of the agreement, the terminal was expected to contribute more than $630 million to Florida’s economy, $280 million in revenue to Port Canaveral, and generate more than $350 million in tax contributions.
  • DAMAC: In January 2025, President Trump announced that DAMAC will invest at least $20 billion in U.S. data centers. This investment has the potential to create 4,000 American jobs. It will support the growth of emerging technologies in the United States, such as AI and machine learning, by providing the necessary infrastructure for data processing and storage. DAMAC expects to create thousands of jobs in the regions where the data centers will be built.

In addition to investments in the United States, U.A.E. entities also continue to partner with U.S. companies on local innovation, capacity building, and mega projects in the U.A.E. and around the globe. Moreover, U.S. companies are welcomed and preferred for business in the U.A.E. Thousands of U.S. firms have a presence in the U.A.E. participating in a wide range of sectors and partnerships. Currently, over 1,800 U.S. businesses utilize the U.A.E. to access regional and global markets. Key recently announced new U.S. partnerships in the U.A.E. include:

  • Microsoft: In April 2024, Microsoft and G42 announced a strategic partnership that includes a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft in G42 to accelerate AI development and global expansion. In September 2024, Microsoft and G42 announced the establishment of two new centers in Abu Dhabi. The first center will focus on advancing the responsible deployment of AI in the Middle East and Global South. The second center will be an extension of Microsoft’s AI for Good Research Lab into the U.A.E.
  • Disney: Walt Disney Company announced in May 2025 an agreement with the U.A.E.’s Miral to build the first Disney theme park in the Middle East.
  • Wynn Resorts: Wynn is developing a $5.1 billion integrated resort on Al Marjan Island, Ras Al Khaimah. This is the largest tourism and hospitality project in the history of Ras Al Khaimah.
  • ADQ: In January 2025, ADQ established a new Abu Dhabi-based 50-50 joint venture with Orion Resource Partners to make strategic investments in the metals and mining sector and enhance supply chains locally and globally. The initial investment totals $1.2 billion over four years and focuses on emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
  • AWS and e&: In October 2024, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and e& signed a $1 billion-plus agreement over six years to accelerate the impact of cloud-driven innovation and digital transformation across the region. The alliance focuses on delivering core cloud services like storage, computing, networking, cybersecurity, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
  • Microsoft and Du: In April 2025, Microsoft and Du signed a $544 million deal to develop a hyper scale data center in the U.A.E. The deal will contribute to the revolution of the U.A.E.’s digital ecosystem.


For more detailed information on the U.S.-U.A.E. commercial relationship, please see the U.S.-U.A.E. Trade and Commercial Data section on our website or contact U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council President Danny Sebright at dsebright@usuaebusiness.org.  

An update on the latest bilateral trade statistics between the U.S. and the U.A.E. can be found at the U.A.E. Embassy Washington DC’s website. 

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