Qatar is the latest Middle Eastern energy producer to beef up its AI strategy, announcing a $20bn joint venture between its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and investment firm Brookfield Asset Management.
As part of the venture, QIA’s newly created national AI company, known as Qai, and Brookfield will inject capital and operating expertise into developing the country’s AI infrastructure. The Qatari government said it would invest in the skills and supply chain needed to support the backbone of AI infrastructure and the adoption of AI throughout Qatar.
The joint venture is Brookfield’s first infrastructure investment in the Middle East region. The New York-headquartered investment firm and its partners plan to invest in the venture through the recently launched Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, which aims to invest up to $100bn worldwide.
Qatar sees the joint venture and the launch of Qai as pivotal to its ambition to become a leading hub for AI services and infrastructure in the Middle East. An integrated centre is planned to provide regional access to high-performance computing and enable the deployment of AI technologies across key economic sectors.
Brookfield and Qai said they also planned to explore opportunities to co-develop and construct AI infrastructure in international markets.
Abdulla Al-Misnad, Chairman of Qai, said the partnership with Brookfield marked a milestone in Qatar’s journey to build world-class AI infrastructure and capabilities, allowing Qatar to create a robust platform to drive responsible AI adoption.
“This collaboration will not only attract investment and top-tier talent, but also strengthen Qatar’s position as a trusted hub for advanced digital technologies in the region and beyond,” he said.
The venture is the latest in a series of investments in AI and other digital technology by Qatari vehicles, including participation by the QIA in a multi-billion dollar funding round for AI-driven analytics platform Databricks, announced in January 2025.
Regional drive
The country is following the example of regional peers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are already pouring billions of dollars into AI in an effort to both diversify their economies, capitalise on their copious energy reserves and make their oil and gas sectors more efficient.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund ramped up its interest in investing in AI in 2024 and has made a number of investments in the sector since then, many through its tech investment vehicle Humain. Meanwhile energy firm Saudi Aramco has beefed up its AI capabilities through ventures with a number of global tech firms including a partnership with AI-driven analytics company Cloudera.
The UAE’s tech drive is spearheaded by state-controlled G42, which received a $1.5bn investment from Microsoft in 2024, and recently announced a $15bn package of investments in the country up to 2029. Microsoft was also a partner in establishing ENERGYai, the UAE’s agentic AI solution for the energy industry, along with Abu Dhabi-based tech firm AIQ and national oil company ADNOC.
A number of other global tech and energy sector firms are also collaborating with AIQ, including SLB, which signed an agreement in mid-2025 to advance the ENERGYai platform across the subsurface operation of ADNOC.
Middle Eastern producers can count on home-produced energy resources to run power-hungry data centres they are building to run AI processes and are hopeful that rapid data centre growth internationally will help maintain global demand for fossil fuels.
(Photo: Doha’s Corniche/Shutterstock)
