Who is DAMAC? The company investing $20B in Midwest, Sun Belt data centers
President-elect Trump on Tuesday announced that a company based in the United Arab Emirates will invest $20 billion to build data centers in several Midwest and Sun Belt states.
Trump spoke to the press at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he was joined by Hussain Sajwani, the founder and chairman of DAMAC, an investment and property development company based in Dubai.
"I'm thrilled to announce today that DAMAC will be investing at least $20 billion over a very short period of time into the United States, and they may go double or even somewhat more than double that amount of money. That's a great thing," Trump said.
The first phase of the data center project will be in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, Trump said.
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"We've been waiting for years to increase our investments in U.S. to very large amount of money," Sajwani said. "For the last four years, we've been waiting for this moment, and we're planning to invest $20 billion, and even more than that, if the opportunity in the market allows us."
"At the moment, we're planning $20 billion in datacenter catering for the AI and cloud business for the hyperscalers," he added.
Sajwani said that DAMAC has delivered over 45,000 luxury residential units and have another 45,000 in the pipeline. He added the company's data center business has a presence in 10 countries around the world in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
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The DAMAC Group was founded in 1982 and its subsidiary DAMAC Properties was launched in 2002 after the UAE opened the country's real estate market to international investors. The company launched its first project in the Dubai Marina area that year.
DAMAC Properties has built projects throughout the Middle East, including in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, as well as in China, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, according to the company's website.
Trump and Sajwani have done business together in the past. In 2016, Trump disclosed in a Federal Elections Commission filing that he and his business received between $1 million and $5 million from DAMAC for a golf course project in the UAE, the AP reported in 2017.
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The Trump International Golf Club Dubai opened in 2017. The club is located within DAMAC's Akoya housing development, which features over 2,600 luxury villas plus 7,000 apartments.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.