UAE unveils massive financial framework to boost US economy

The United Arab Emirates has committed to a 10-year, $1.4 trillion investment framework in the United States after top UAE officials met President Donald Trump this week, the White House said on March 21.

The framework will "substantially increase the UAE's existing investments in the US economy" in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and manufacturing, Caliber.Az reports, referring to foreign media.

The White House did not outline how UAE investments would reach $1.4 trillion, with some of the deals unveiled as part of the framework already having been announced. The only fully new deal appeared to be an investment by Emirates Global Aluminium in what would be the first new aluminium smelter in the United States in 35 years, the White House said, adding the plant "would nearly double US domestic aluminium production."

"Developing a primary aluminium smelter in the US has been part of EGA's ambitions for several years," a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement.

The UAE, an oil producer and longtime security partner of the US, is looking to deepen investment ties with Washington and is emerging as a global leader in AI, one of the sectors it is betting on to diversify its economy away from energy.

In September, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met former US President Joe Biden, in the first visit of a UAE president to the White House, as the two leaders discussed deepening cooperation in areas such as AI, investments, and space exploration.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds, including Abu Dhabi's $330-billion Mubadala, are already big US investors, and Trump and his family have business ties to the region.

Trump in January asked Saudi Arabia to spend upwards of $1 trillion in the US economy over four years, including purchases of military equipment, and said this month he likely would make his first trip abroad to the Gulf country to seal an investment agreement.

The deal, which could happen between this month or the next, would come at a time when Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's biggest economy, has been taking a more prominent role in US foreign policy. The Gulf country is set to host diplomatic talks around Ukraine involving the US and Russia next week.

The White House said on Friday the UAE agreement resulted from a meeting that Trump held on Tuesday with national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the Oval Office and a dinner that Vice President JD Vance and several cabinet members held with the UAE delegation, which included the heads of major UAE sovereign wealth funds and corporations.

Among the tie-ups highlighted on Friday was a partnership between UAE sovereign wealth fund ADQ, which is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, and US private equity firm Energy Capital Partners, for a $25 billion US-focused initiative to invest in energy infrastructure and data centres. That had been previously announced two days ago.

A commitment by XRG, the international investment arm of UAE state oil company ADNOC launched in November, to support US natural gas production and exports with an investment in the NextDecade liquefied natural gas export facility in Texas, had previously been made public last year by ADNOC, under Biden.

By Tamilla Hasanova