What we know about Trump, Ohio and a Dubai billionaire's incoming data centers

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio will be getting new major data center infrastructure in a $20 billion foreign investment announced by President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump announced the investment Wednesday with United Arab Emrites billionaire Hussain Sajwani, who is pledging "at least" $20 billion toward building data centers in the U.S. in the next four years. Sajwani is the founder of the DAMAC Group, a Dubai-based luxury real estate developer with a data center development spin off company, Edgnex Data Centres by DAMAC.

This will be Edgnex's first venture into the U.S., and Trump and Sajwami said the investment may grow in the future. Trump said the "first phase" of the project will be in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.

According to an Edgnex news release, the first phase will work on acquiring land banks that are near utilities, building Edgnex's capacity to operate through partnerships and joint ventures, and acquiring existing data centers and platforms in the U.S. Edgnex representatives said the first phase will generate 500MW capacity in two centers, one in the Midwest and one in the Sunbelt.

Edgnex's expansion to Ohio follows a growing trend of data center investments in the state. In 2024, seven tech companies had pledged more than $1 billion in investments in the state, many in New Albany and Licking County. In 2024, 31% of New Albany residents said controlling growth should be a top priority for city officials, a notable increase from the 22% who prioritized it in the last community survey in 2022.

JobsOhio partners with the state to help bring companies and investments to Ohio. Most recently, JobsOhio announced another $10 billion data center construction investment from Amazon Web Services.

“Thanks to the growing number of data center leaders in our state, Ohio has emerged as one of the nation's foremost technology centers, helping us attract business innovators that hadn’t previously considered locating here,” JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef said.

When asked about details for Ohio's Edgnex plants, an OhioJobs representative said they do not share project discussions they have with companies, only information once projects are completed. Intel, the semiconductor giant that only recently received its promised federal funding from President Joe Biden to build its own hub in central Ohio, told NBC4 it did not have a comment on Edgnex's support from Trump or on the data centers entering the Ohio market.

Trump and Sajwani partnering on projects is not new, although this will be the first agreement in Ohio. DAMAC Group lists the Trump Organization as one of its six brand collaborators, and DAMAC collaborated to create the Trump Estates at DAMAC Hills, a gated community near Trump's Dubai golf course. Sajwani, Trump and billionaire Elon Musk also celebrated New Year's together, according to an Instagram post from Sajawani.

DAMAC also has slight ties to former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December and inventing a story about Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes. First reported in The Guardian, Smirnov received $600,000 from a company called Economic Transformation Technologies at the same time he was feeding the FBI false information. There is no confirmed connection between the funds and the false information; however, there are connections between ETT and DAMAC.

Farooq Arjomand, non-executive director and chairman with the DAMAC Group, was also the sole officer of ETT Investment Holding Limited, which was founded in March 2020 with just three shareholders. Arjomand was one shareholder, Shahal Khan was another and ETT CEO Christopher Condon was the third. London-based ETT Investment Holding Limited was dissolved in September 2021 by government order.