For Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE Ambassador to the United States, a recent trip home to Abu Dhabi carried personal weight. In a letter sent to the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council on October 19, 2026, he described moving between family gatherings and meetings with senior government leaders, and spoke of being moved by the determination and encouragement he encountered after what he called a challenging few months.
The ambassador’s message was directed at the council’s members and friends, people he credited with steady support during a difficult stretch. “Your messages and your actions have meant so much,” he wrote, adding that neither side had flinched. He offered sincere thanks to the council and its members, and noted that he had heard the same resolve from business partners in both the UAE and the US.
Additional reference context is available at https://www.uae-embassy.org/news/letter-ambassador-al-otaiba-business-community-october-2026.
Beyond gratitude, the letter laid out the substance of the relationship as the ambassador sees it. At its center is technology cooperation. In the desert outside Abu Dhabi, one of the world’s largest data center complexes is taking shape: the 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus, built with American partners and powered by American chips. In July, Washington elevated the UAE to Country Group A:5 under Commerce Department export rules, authorizing approved companies and government entities license-free access to eligible US technologies, including advanced AI chips and servers, commercial satellites and spacecraft, and dual-use and defense-related equipment. The UAE is the first Arab state to receive the designation, a step the ambassador said would reduce licensing delays for American companies and make joint projects more predictable.
The letter framed the designation as mutually beneficial. The US, seeking to preserve its AI advantage, wants international partners committed to the American tech stack and its security controls. As computing capacity comes online in the UAE, American companies will be able to provide rapid, low-latency inferencing services to more than two billion people across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The ambassador acknowledged that A:5 carries obligations, describing ring-fenced security environments, approved end users, verifiable non-diversion, vetted personnel and continuous monitoring, along with the removal and continued banning of any hardware, software or investment that could benefit states or entities of concern.
Trust, in his telling, has a track record. The 2009 UAE-US 123 Agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation required the UAE to forgo uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing and to accept intensive international verification, restrictions US lawmakers have called the gold standard. Four nuclear reactors now supply 25 percent of the UAE’s electricity, including power for the new data centers. On defense, US systems purchased by the UAE, including THAAD, Patriot missile systems, F-16s and Apache helicopters, have engaged thousands of Iranian drones and missiles since the conflict began, shielding the UAE homeland and forming part of the network that defended American personnel, assets and allies across the region. The Trump administration formalized the U.S.-UAE Major Defense Partnership in May 2025, building on the UAE’s 2024 designation as a Major Defense Partner by President Biden, and in July 2026 CENTCOM established Task Force Talon Synapse, described as the world’s first bilateral task force dedicated to accelerating military AI applications.
The letter devoted considerable space to investment. The UAE’s ten-year, $1.4 trillion economic and trade framework is exceeding its first-year targets, the ambassador wrote. Mubadala has backed GlobalFoundries since 2009, and GlobalFoundries announced a $16 billion expansion plan in June 2025 for its New York and Vermont facilities. Core42 expanded its Buffalo AI cluster from 18MW to 60MW. Mubadala Capital co-led Crusoe’s $3.9 billion Series F round, valuing the Denver-based company at $30.9 billion. MGX joined the $500 billion Stargate Project, launched a $100 billion AI Infrastructure Fund with Microsoft, BlackRock and GIP, backed $12.6 billion in funding for OpenAI and xAI, and acquired Aligned Data Centers in Texas for $40 billion. UAE investors also joined Oracle and Silver Lake to keep TikTok in the US for its 200 million American users. In energy, ADNOC, XRG and Masdar have invested more than $85 billion across 19 states, with plans to reach $440 billion by 2035. Emirates Global Aluminium’s planned $4 billion Oklahoma facility is expected to create 1,000 direct jobs, and Emirates, Etihad and flydubai have ordered 168 Boeing aircraft worth $65.5 billion combined.
The ambassador closed by acknowledging the strain placed on the regional economy by the conflict and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, while pointing to the UAE’s continued investment plans and its support for the council’s Infrastructure Trade Mission in November, certified as an official US Department of Commerce bilateral engagement. He thanked Waleed, Tommy, Danny and the council team, and asked members to carry his message to their colleagues, boards and networks: that the UAE did not pause, but prepared, invested and pushed forward with the partners it trusts most. Whether that resolve holds as the region’s pressures continue will be watched closely in both capitals.