Data Center Push Follows $12.5M Payment From Dubai Developer to Trump Firms

WASHINGTON - DAMAC Properties, the Dubai-based real estate developer with ties to the Trump Organization stretching back to 2013, transferred $12.5 million to Trump businesses during the president’s first year back in office, while simultaneously advancing a separate initiative to build data centers across the United States with active support from the Trump administration.

The scale of the payments marks a sharp break from prior years. The $12.5 million figure more than doubles any annual payment recorded on Trump’s financial disclosures since his first filing in 2015, signaling a substantial shift in the financial relationship between the two entities. The surge originated from two DAMAC subsidiaries, DAMAC Properties Investment LLC and DAMAC Sky View Real Estate LLC, which transferred funds to newly created Trump companies: DT Marks Al Raha Beach LLC and DT Marks Abu Dhabi LLC. Each subsidiary paid $5 million in licensing fees. Both Trump entities appear connected to unannounced real estate developments in Abu Dhabi.

The data center expansion unfolded on a parallel track. Two weeks before Trump’s inauguration, DAMAC chair Hussain Sajwani appeared alongside the president at a Mar-a-Lago press conference and announced a $20 billion commitment to develop data centers throughout the United States. Trump indicated he could facilitate “expedited reviews” for the projects. DAMAC Digital, the company managing this initiative, has since begun construction planning in Canton, Ohio and Edgerton, Kansas, with corporate filings suggesting additional developments may be underway in Illinois. A January 2025 press release identified six additional states as targets for expansion.

Local communities hosting these facilities have raised practical concerns. Residents in Ohio and Kansas have expressed worries about noise, pollution, and broader economic impacts, objections that align with nationwide apprehension about data centers, particularly around rising utility costs and strain on electrical grid infrastructure.

The regulatory environment shifted markedly in July 2025, when Trump signed an executive order titled “Accelerating federal permitting of data center infrastructure.” On the same day that order was released, DT Marks Al Raha Beach LLC was formally established in Delaware. The second Trump company had been created ten days after the inauguration.

By contrast, Trump’s approach during his first presidency looked quite different. After winning the 2016 election, Sajwani proposed $2 billion in new foreign business deals to strengthen his financial position with the incoming president. Trump declined, citing conflict of interest concerns. In the current term, nearly two dozen Trump-branded real estate projects are operating in foreign countries while he serves as president. Those international ventures generated more than $32 million in revenue from United Arab Emirates projects alone during the previous year, a substantial expansion of Trump’s foreign business income during his time in office.

The timing and structure of these transactions, payments escalating sharply, new corporate entities created around key policy moments, and a federal permitting order signed the same day a Trump company was registered, raise questions about the gap between the conflict-of-interest guardrails applied in 2016 and the arrangements now in place. Whether the data center projects in Ohio, Kansas, Illinois, and the six additional target states proceed on the accelerated timeline the administration has signaled remains the operational question worth watching.